1 month ago
18
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
The Palestinian Authority wants to prove it can handle security in Gaza, even if it means working in parallel with a destructive Israeli campaign that has displaced tens of thousands.
By Adam Rasgon and Fatima AbdulKarim
Adam Rasgon and Fatima AbdulKarim interviewed more than 25 officials, residents and analysts.
Feb. 28, 2025, 5:32 a.m. ET
The Palestinian Authority was carrying out one of the most extensive security operations in its history, pursuing armed militants in the West Bank city of Jenin. For weeks, the authority’s forces slowly advanced on the militants’ densely populated stronghold, Palestinian officials said.
When the Israeli military launched its own wide-scale raid there in January, the authority was expected to abandon its operation.
But it did not.
Instead, when dozens of militants fled to nearby villages, Palestinian security forces swooped in to arrest them, officials said. “We made very important progress in reinforcing law and order,” Brig. Gen. Anwar Rajab, the spokesman for the authority’s security forces, said in a phone interview.
The authority, which has limited governing powers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, had for years largely ceded the fight against militants to Israel. But as questions swirl over whether it can take on governance and security in Gaza, the group’s leaders appear eager to demonstrate that they will not shy away from fighting — even if it means angering Palestinians who say the authority is abetting an operation that is destroying large parts of the West Bank and displacing tens of thousands.
Jenin, and in particular the Jenin camp, a sprawling neighborhood built for refugees in the aftermath of the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, had become a haven for Iran-backed armed fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Over the years, they have grown more sophisticated in their ability to develop explosives and obtain advanced weaponry, like M16 rifles smuggled from Israel.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas led an attack on Israel that started the war in Gaza, Israel has carried out scores of raids in the West Bank, including with airstrikes, killing many civilians. Israel says it carries out these raids in accordance with international law. The authority mostly avoided a direct confrontation with the militants, trying to encourage them to turn themselves in.
