PA Chairman Abu Mazen convened yesterday in the Muqataa in Ramallah the heads of the PA’s security forces to discuss the deterioration of the security situation in the West Bank.
The meeting was attended by all the governors of the districts, Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Ishtayeh, Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Rikh and associates of the chairman of the PA, Hussein al-Sheikh, and Majed Faraj.
According to sources who participated in the meeting, Abu Mazen demanded that the participants be careful “to enforce law and order in the territories of the Palestinian Authority” and to prevent a deterioration in the security situation so that Israel’s intentions to enter the cities can be curbed.
According to Israeli security officials, the Palestinian Authority asked Israel to let it try and take control of the security anarchy in the city of Nablus on its own, but in relation to the city of Jenin, the Palestinian Authority admits its security failure and that the control of the entire city has passed into the hands of the terrorist organizations.
The IDF will probably give the PA an extension to act on its own in Nablus, but time is running out, the terrorist group known as the “Lions’ Den” almost completely controls the city, senior officials in the PA question the ability of the Palestinian security forces to take control of the situation in the city of Nablus.
The situation in Jenin
The IDF’s operation in the Jenin refugee camp last week was successful as far as the IDF was concerned, 4 terrorists were killed and not a single Israeli soldier was injured, but it is clear that such difficult and complex fighting in a built-up area could result in casualties among IDF soldiers, therefore, the IDF must move quickly to the use of attack drones, especially after the Chief of Staff recently approved their use in the West Bank for the purpose of fighting terrorism.
For the Palestinians, this operation was a serious operational and morale damage and they call it a “massacre”.
The Palestinian street is furious with the Chairman of the PA Abu Mazen over the phone calls he made on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah to President Yitzhak Herzog and Defense Minister Benny Gantz and also on his request to speak on the phone with Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
The area is also outraged by Abu Mazen’s announcement in his speech at the United Nations about his willingness to immediately resume negotiations with Israel.
PA Chairman Abu Mazen shows no practical determination to fight terrorism for fear that this will lead to a civil war in the West Bank that will destabilize his rule and also for fear of an internal rebellion in the PA’s security forces that see terrorism against the IDF and the settlers as a “legitimate action” by the Palestinians.
That is why we see the increase in the number of PA security personnel who take part in terrorist operations.
“The time has come for the De Luxe occupation to become a bloody occupation that will cost Israel materially and morally and in terms of casualties to the IDF forces”, says a senior member of the Fatah movement.
The mission of the IDF now is to put the genie of the terrorist wave back in the bottle before it spreads to other parts of the West Bank and sparks a new intifada, the terrorist strategy must not be allowed to win.
The “Rai Alyoum” newspaper reported on September 29 from Palestinian security officials that Iran’s “Revolutionary Guards” and Hezbollah are working behind the scenes to escalate the security situation in the West Bank in order to destabilize Abu Mazen’s regime.
The wave of terrorism is a direct result of the operation in the Gaza Strip and the escape from Gilboa prison
The city of Jenin is once again leading the terrorism in the current wave as it did in the second intifada in 2000 and it earned the nickname of the “capital of terror” in the West Bank or “Jenin-Grad”.
The “hornet’s nest” of terrorism in Jenin was renewed following the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip in May 2021 and following the escape of 6 terrorists from Gilboa prison in September of that year.
The Palestinian street is no longer ready to accept what is happening in Al-Aqsa Mosque and East Jerusalem in terms of the Israeli presence there and the Palestinian Authority is no longer ready to be Israel’s “security contractor” in the West Bank without receiving a proper political return.
The terrorist Jamil Al-Amuori, who was killed in the city of Jenin in June of last year, has become a symbol of the current wave of terrorism and thousands of Palestinians call out his name during the funerals of the Palestinian terrorists who were killed by the IDF.
Al-Amouri was the founder of the new terror group in the Jenin area called the “Jenin Battalion” which unites all the Palestinian factions and is financially supported by the Islamic Jihad.
The first actions of this group were shooting at the IDF checkpoints in the Jenin area.
Following this group, other terrorist groups arose that imitated it called: the “Nablus Battalion”, the “Tulkarm Battalion”, the “Tubas Battalion” and the “Lions’ Den” group in Nablus.
The common denominator between all the new terrorist groups that arose In Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm, is that their members are released security prisoners, close to the religion of Islam, who knew each other in prisons in Israel, all in their 20s and who were small children during the second intifada.
A large number of them were also detained in PA detention facilities on the charge of carrying a weapon without a license.
Some of them were severely tortured in Jericho Prison, known as the PA’s slaughterhouse””.
The “Lions’ Den” group in the city of Nablus is an independent group but has an orientation towards the Fatah movement, despite this, the PA persecuted it, so for example the terrorist Ibrahim al-Naboulsi spent 6 months in detention by the PA’s preventive security despite the fact that his father is at the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Palestinian security forces.
Despite this, the anger of these terrorist groups is directed against Israel and not against the Palestinian Authority, the attacks they carry out are only against the IDF and the settlers and not against the Palestinian Authority.
The political echelon in Israel is not interested in expanding the military activity against terrorism in the West Bank in the form of a military operation in northern West Bank, out of fear that this will actually lead to dozens of Palestinian deaths and increase Palestinian motivation for terrorism, the IDF will continue its activities focused on arresting wanted terrorists, mainly in the Jenin area, on the condition that the PA chairman succeeds in preventing terrorism from the city of Nablus.
The IDF estimates that the danger of terrorism will increase in the holiday of Sukkot.
Security officials estimate that in the event of terrorist attacks with Israeli casualties, the political echelon will find it difficult to withstand the pressure of public opinion and call for a major military operation in northern West Bank.
