The move sparked outrage in the West Bank

Shatha Sabbagh, a journalism student in her early 20s from Jenin in the occupied West Bank, had just returned home from buying candy with her mother and three other relatives when gunfire erupted.

The group jumped to the ground, but it was too late for Shatha. “She had her eyes open and was looking at me,” said her mother, Nahed Sabbagh, her voice cracking. “And then I saw something coming out of her head. And in that moment I realized I had lost my daughter.”

In recent years, the refugee camp in Jenin where Shatha was shot – a warren of narrow streets that has become one of the main strongholds of Palestinian militant groups in the West Bank – has repeatedly been the target of deadly and destructive raids by Israeli security forces.

But Shatha’s death in late December came amid something much rarer: an operation by security forces of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, against the camp’s militants.

Palestinian officials say the operation – now in its sixth week and by far the largest the Palestinian Authority has carried out in its 30-year existence – aims to restore law and order against “outlaws” in the restive camp that has been going on since PA control has been out of control for a long time.

The operation was also widely interpreted as an attempt by the Palestinian Authority to show the international community that it is capable of taking on a role in managing Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas in the enclave is over – one Idea supported by the Palestinian Authority, US, Arab and European states, but Israel’s hardline government vehemently rejects it.

Israel and Hamas finally reached a multi-stage agreement this week to end the 15-month war and release hostages still held in Gaza. But it is not clear whether this will lead to a permanent end to the war, with far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government calling for Israel to resume hostilities.

“The PA wants to show. . . Whoever thinks of the day after can set rules and laws and play a role not only in the West Bank but also in Gaza,” said Adnan Alsabah, a Jenin-based political analyst.

But the killing of civilians like Shatha, for which her mother blames the PA and PA militants, has sparked outrage and threatens to further undermine the weakened PA’s waning domestic legitimacy. Founded as a stepping stone to a Palestinian state, it is now seen by many Palestinians as supporting Israeli occupation.

“The people in the camp used to have an enemy. Now they have two,” Sabbagh said. “(Israel) and the PA – they are two sides of the same coin.”

The Palestinian Authority operation began in December after militants seized two Palestinian Authority vehicles, paraded them through the camp and fired shots at municipal buildings in protest at the arrest of two Islamic Jihad militants. Since then, Palestinian Authority forces say they have arrested dozens of suspected militants, defused improvised bombs and seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition.

But the situation in Jenin remains unstable. When the Financial Times visited, the entrances to the camp were blocked by PA vehicles and checkpoints. There were repeated exchanges of gunfire, including one in which a 50-year-old woman was killed.

Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority security forces, said that in addition to restoring law and order, the operation was also intended to prevent attacks by militants who would provide the Israeli government with a pretext to launch a massive operation in the area would.

Netanyahu’s government, widely considered the most right-wing in Israeli history, is backed by ministers determined to annex the West Bank and emboldened by Donald Trump’s re-election.

“We don’t want a full-scale confrontation with (Israel),” Rajab said. “We will be the ones who lose in this confrontation. We don’t want to let anyone drag us there.”

Others, however, consider the PA’s recent operation, which Rajab said involved “a few hundred” soldiers, to be far less calculated and argue that it has landed the agency in trouble.

“The Palestinian Authority is not in a position to use massive force against the camp because if it did so there would be massive casualties and its support would be shaken, and that could also spark unrest in other parts of the West.” Bank said Ibrahim Dalalsha, director of the Ramallah-based Horizon Center for Political Studies.

“But if the Palestinian Authority backs down now after sending in all these troops, it will fall, not only in the eyes of its international and regional partners, but also in terms of domestic politics.”

So far, both sides appear to have been relatively reserved in Jenin.

Over the past six weeks, hostilities have claimed the lives of six members of the Palestinian security services and nine others. The Palestinian Authority said three were militants, but the United Nations said only one was armed.

By contrast, a major Israeli operation in Jenin last year killed 21 people in nine days, according to Palestinian officials. Israel said at the time it had killed 14 militants. Twelve people were killed in two Israeli drone strikes in Jenin this week. According to the latest UN data, Israeli forces have killed 795 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

But even though the death toll from the PA operation was relatively low, the fact that Palestinians fought each other – even as the Israeli military carried out a devastating attack on Gaza – has raised widespread doubts.

“What is happening in Jenin is a black page in the history of the Palestinians,” Alsabah said. “It shows the world that we don’t see eye to eye, we don’t have the same platform, we don’t share the same vision.”

The longer the operation dragged on, the greater public pressure for an end to it grew. Community leaders in both Jenin and Ramallah have appealed to the Palestinian Authority and militants to end the standoff, with further calls following the Israeli drone strikes and the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza. Attempts were made to end the standoff on Friday.

“The situation in Jenin will not defeat the Palestinian Authority militarily. It has more than 30,000 security personnel. It has the weapons and money to maintain control. And it has international and regional support,” Dalalsha said.

“The problem for the Palestinian Authority is that its public image was already lost before this operation. And the situation in Jenin has made it even weaker.”

Cartography and data visualization by Aditi Bhandari and Chris Campbell