PA’s brutal siege on Jenin only deepens its crisis of legitimacy
Mourners carry the body of Shatha Sabbagh, a Palestinian journalism student killed by a bullet to the head in the Jenin refugee camp, during her funeral in Jenin on 29 December 2024
Yara Hawari writes in Al Jazeeera on 3 January 2025:
On December 28, young journalism student Shatha Sabbagh stepped out of her house in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, with her mother and the two young children of her sister. A moment later, she was shot in the head and killed by a sniper’s bullet. She was just 21 years old.
Shatha was killed in the same refugee camp where veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was assassinated by the Israeli regime in 2022. Yet, Shatha was killed not by an Israeli regime soldier. According to her family, the bullet that took her life was fired by the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF).
For the last month, the PASF has laid siege to the Jenin refugee camp, in a coordinated effort with the Israelis, as part of its efforts to crack down on armed resistance in the northern West Bank.
While the Palestinian Authority (PA) managed to subdue resistance to the Israeli occupation in many other urban hubs through threats and oppression, in the north there remain pockets where armed resistance groups are still present. The city of Jenin, and especially its refugee camp, where both Shireen and Shatha were killed, is one such pocket. This is why the camp, which is home to more than 15,000 people, has come to be seen as a symbol of resistance and steadfastness and very much a thorn in the PASF’s side.
Indeed, the PA’s very existence is reliant on stamping out such resistance to the Israeli regime in all areas under its supposed control. As such, it continuously coordinates its actions with the Israeli army, and utilises tactics of oppression that are often indistinguishable from theirs. In fact, one could easily mistake PASF for the Israeli army, if it weren’t for their different uniforms.
And as the Israelis continue with their genocide in Gaza, the PASF embarked on their very own extensive act of aggression against Jenin.