For more than a week, the sprawling Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank has echoed to the sound of heavy gunfire \u2013 with masked snipers on roof tops and muffled explosions within its warren of alleyways. <\/p>\n
But the combat has not involved the Israeli military, which has launched countless raids in recent years against what it calls terrorists in the camp, a stronghold of resistance to the Israeli occupation. <\/p>\n
This fight is between Palestinians: the security forces of the Palestinian Authority and militant groups aligned with Hamas who say the PA has sold out to Israel. <\/p>\n
The authority, which is supported by the West, launched its largest security operation in years to dislodge the militant groups in an attempt to show that it can handle the security situation in the West Bank as it eyes control over a post-war Gaza. <\/p>\n
But the operation appears only to have stiffened resistance and alienated many of the thousands of civilians who live there. And they have gained little ground, with militants still in control of much of the camp. <\/p>\n
The authority\u2019s security forces have tried to arrest dozens of men they describe as outlaws trying to \u201chijack\u201d the camp, which was established for Palestinians uprooted from their homes after Israel\u2019s creation in 1948 and is now a built-up area that is home to some 25,000 people. <\/p>\n
Hamas describes the fighters in the camp as the \u201cresistance\u201d \u2013 a coalition of militant groups that sees the authority and its security forces as doing Israel\u2019s bidding. <\/p>\n
The militant factions include the Al Aqsa Martyrs\u2019 Brigade, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Qassem Brigades, who fight under the banner of the Jenin Battalion. <\/p>\n
The authority says that its forces have \u201cadvanced in very important ways\u201d in the camp. But they have little of the technology and weaponry the Israeli military can bring to bear, and on Sunday a member of the Palestinian Presidential Guard was killed by militants\u2019 gunfire. <\/p>\n
One militant leader has also been killed, as have three teenagers, the youngest of them 14. Each side blamed the other for their deaths. <\/p>\n
The flare in violence caps off a deadly year in the area. Israel conducted a days-long raid in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas, in the northern West Bank, in September, killing at least 39 people and leaving widespread destruction, according to the authority\u2019s health ministry and United Nations. Among them were at least nine militants, according to public statements from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. <\/p>\n
The Palestinian Authority is nominally in charge of security in much of the West Bank under the Oslo Accords, signed in the 1990s with the aim of establishing a Palestinian state. But in the years since, Israel has extended its control of the occupied territory, expanded settlements and carried out frequent raids against militant Palestinian groups. <\/p>\n
If the authority wants to take on a broader role in administering Palestinian areas or seek a return to Gaza \u2013 something that Israeli government has persistently ruled out \u2013 Jenin is a litmus test. <\/p>\n
Events in Jenin are also a bellwether for Iranian influence among the militants. Al-Sa\u2019adi acknowledged that help was coming from Iran, a growing concern to the Israeli security services. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe receive support from Iran and from anyone willing to help us, but we do not belong to Iran or to any external entity outside Palestine,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The extent and type of Iranian backing for the militants is hard to assess. But the Israeli security forces said in November they recovered large amounts of Iranian-supplied weapons near Jenin. <\/p>\n
Defense Minister Israel Katz said on a recent visit to the West Bank that \u201cIran will not succeed in establishing an Iranian \u2018octopus\u2019 arm\u2019\u201d in the refugee camps, and a new fence on the border with Jordan would \u201cprevent Iranian plans to smuggle weapons into Israel through Jordan.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Jenin Battalion is entrenched in the camp, the nerve center of a new wave of Palestinian militancy in the occupied territories. <\/p>\n
The militant group\u2019s growing use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) has added a layer of complexity for Israeli and the Palestinian authority\u2019s efforts to combat them. <\/p>\n
\u201cUrban warfare is our expertise, and it\u2019s a game-changer,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
The security forces maintain the militants are endangering innocent lives by planting explosive mines in the streets and in residences. <\/p>\n
Aqel and other Jenin residents said the authority\u2019s security operation had made life much more difficult \u2013 and dangerous in the camp, with some suggesting that it amounted to collective punishment. By the end of last week, much of the camp was without water and electricity. Garbage was piling up and children were unable to get to school. <\/p>\n
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said last week it had suspended its services to the camp, which include education and healthcare, amid the fighting. The agency condemned the occupation of its health center in Jenin camp by \u201cPalestinian armed actors\u201d last week. <\/p>\n
Local resident Ihab Sa\u2019adi urged fresh dialogue between the Palestinian Authority and the militants. <\/p>\n
Rajab, the security forces\u2019 spokesman, said the Palestinian Authority had tried to negotiate with the factions \u2013 but its efforts had been ignored. <\/p>\n
He said the militants\u2019 action \u201cspreads chaos in the West Bank and aids the Israeli occupation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Amid the fighting and the sealing of exits from the camp, the mood among residents has grown more desperate. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t feel safe here, we can\u2019t walk in the street, and we can\u2019t go on a roof top. Life is almost paralyzed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He added that the authority should \u201cgive us the names of the ones you claim are outlaws and the entire camp will hand them over. The outlaws are inside the presidential compound,\u201d referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas\u2019 residence in the West Bank city of Ramallah. <\/p>\n
Palestinian officials have frequently complained that they don\u2019t have the equipment they need to confront the militants. The authority also appears to have little support in areas like Jenin\u2019s refugee camp which for now remains firmly under the control of the Jenin Battalion. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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