Last week, PA Chairman Abu Mazen convened the heads of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and severely reprimanded them for the fact that the PA lost its security control in the northern West Bank.
Israel and the PA are concerned about the continued growth of new terrorist groups in the northern West Bank, this week a new group arose in the town of Yabed in the Jenin region, calling itself the Dyaa Battalion, after the terrorist Dyaa Khamarsha who carried out the shooting attack in Bnei Brak on March 29, 2022.
Two weeks ago, a new armed terrorist group arose in the village of Jaba in the Jenin area, called the Jaba groups.
In the northern West Bank, there are already more than a thousand armed terrorists and large quantities of weapons and ammunition, the Palestinian Authority’s security forces are doing nothing and the new security echelon in Israel is studying the issue , there is a new Minister of Defense and a new Chief of Staff who have to decide how to deal with the problem of growing terrorism in the northern West Bank, meanwhile the IDF continues the large-scale arrest operation in the territories of Judea and Samaria of wanted terrorists.
The weakness of the Palestinian Authority
.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.
According to Israeli security sources, the PA asked Israel to let it try and take over the security anarchy in the cities of Jenin and Nablus on its own, the entire control of these cities passed to the terrorist organizations.
The time has come for the de luxe occupation to become a bleeding one that will cost Israel materially and morally and cause casualties to the IDF forces says a senior member of the Fatah movement.
The failure of the agreement with the wanted terrorists
As mentioned, the Israeli security forces gave the PA the opportunity to negotiate with the armed groups in order to disarm them and bring security calm.
The Shin Bet wanted to try and implement the agreement reached in the past with wanted terrorists of the Fatah movement, in July 2007 an agreement was reached between the Israeli Shin Bet , with the approval of the political echelon, and the PA for the freezing of Israel’s targeted killings against about 170 wanted terrorists of the Fatah movement in the West Bank.
The condition was that they abandon the path of terrorism, hand over their weapons to the PA and be on a 3-month probationary period, some of them joined the PA’s security forces.
Every wanted person who at the time agreed to the new arrangement and successfully passed the probationary period received immunity from the Shin Bet from arrest or assassination.
Later the agreement was expanded to include 200 more wanted terrorists, the agreement is still considered successful and something that resulted in the removal of Palestinian youths from the cycle of terrorism against Israel without bloodshed.
According to this model, the Palestinian Authority has in recent months opened talks with the terrorist groups in Jenin and Nablus and offered the members of the groups different arrangements on the grounds that this would protect their lives from being killed by the IDF and Shin Bet.
Abu Mujahed, one of the leaders of the Lions Den group told Al-Jazeera channel
on January 7 that the PA asked him to disband the group and hand over his weapons in exchange for receiving a position in the PA’s security forces, a car and an apartment, but he refused.
About 15 activists of the Lions Den group in Nablus turned themselves in to the PA following the assassination of one of the group’s leaders, Tamer Alkilani, in the Kasbah of Nablus, in a special operation by the IDF and the Shin Bet, but in Jenin all the efforts of the PA failed to reach an agreement with the wanted terrorists .
In recent weeks, the Lions Den group in Nablus has reawakened, it has returned to carry out attacks and dozens of new young people have joined its ranks.
Israel and the PA have failed in their attempt to reach an agreement with the wanted terrorists in order to disarm them and this is a bad sign for what is expected in the future.
Both Israel and the PA have lost their deterrent power and it seems that a change is required in the strategy for dealing with terrorism in the West Bank which has reached new dimensions of boldness and provocation of the PA’s security forces and the IDF.
A senior security official estimates that the security situation is about to escalate, that terrorism has begun to spread to the south of the West Bank and its center, there is great fear that it will also reach the main cities within Israel, and Israel will probably have to carry out a large military operation in the north of the West Bank to disarm the armed groups.
