Jenin refugee camp, West Bank, Palestine. File photo.
Gunfights erupted in Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank between Palestinian resistance fighters and Palestinian Authority security forces following alleged theft of vehicles belonging to the Palestinian Authority.
The intense exchanges of fire began around 9:30 PM local time (1930 GMT) on Thursday, December 5, and followed the deployment of PA security forces around the Jenin refugee camp, which is adjacent to the city and a stronghold for Palestinian resistance groups operating in the territory.
Witnesses reported that the Palestinian security forces set up roadblocks on routes leaving the camp.
Tensions were running high in Jenin earlier in the day after a group of armed men seized two vehicles belonging to the PA and paraded through the streets waving Islamic Jihad flags.
In a statement, General Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the PA security forces, said that “a group of outlaws opened fire on the headquarters of the security services” and stole two vehicles.
He added the security forces would “recover the vehicles and hold accountable anyone who committed this act.”
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Tensions between the PA and the resistance factions have been exacerbated by recent arrests by the security forces.
At a press conference inside Jenin camp, Mahmud Abu Talal, spokesperson for a collective of local armed groups, said that the PA had “abandoned its people in the most difficult circumstances.”
He rejected the label of outlaws and accused the PA of “carrying out a continuous operation to undermine those who protect their people.”
Jenin has long been a bastion of Palestinian resistance groups and was the focus of a brutal Israeli raid launched at the end of August this year.
Violence in the West Bank, already increasing, surged after the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.
Israel has occupied the territory since 1967.
(New Arab) with additional editing by Orinoco Tribune
