Why is PA cracking down on resistance groups in occupied West Bank?

The US prodding of Israel to help the Palestinian Authority (PA) crack down on Palestinian resistance groups is unlikely to succeed and could even lead to further weakening of the Mahmoud Abbas-led administration in the occupied West Bank, analysts have said.

In a private request, the Biden administration has asked Israel to lift the ban on US military aid to the PA since the October 7, 2023, Hamas raid that triggered Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed over 45,000 people in just over a year.

The request by the US is meant to help PA security forces in their ongoing crackdown against the Jenin Brigades, a coalition of Palestinian groups engaged in resistance against Israel.

In the largest-ever operation being conducted by PA security forces in years, the administrative body is trying to regain control of Jenin and its refugee camp from members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah, Al-Quds Brigades of Islamic Jihad and Qassam Brigades of Hamas.

The PA lost control of Gaza in 2006 when Hamas won the elections in the tiny enclave, now under Israeli siege.

Analysts, however, see the PA’s crackdown as a last-ditch attempt to stay relevant in the face of growing support for Hamas and other resistance groups, increasingly seen by Palestinians as the true representatives of their cause.

“If Israel has been incapable of preventing Palestinian resistance from regenerating itself for 75 years, then it would be really naive to assume that the current crackdown by the PA in Jenin is going to do that,” says Tahani Mustafa, senior analyst for Palestine at the International Crisis Group.

“The operation is not going to be sufficient enough to limit resistance. In one form or another, resistance will resurface,” she tells TRT World.

The PA forces have been clamping down on Jenin Brigades for many weeks, killing a commander and a 19-year-old cadre.

Quoting a Palestinian official, US publication Axios said the ongoing operation is a “make-or-break moment” for the PA.

Palestinians fighting in the Jenin camp accuse the PA of clamping down on resistance groups in the occupied West Bank at the behest of Israel.

The US wants Israel to approve the urgent delivery of ammunition, helmets, bulletproof vests, radios, night-vision equipment, explosive disposal suits and armoured cars to the PA.

The Palestinian security sector employs half of all civil servants, accounting for nearly $1 billion of the PA’s total budget, says Sami Al Arian, director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University.

The security sector alone receives around 30 percent of total international aid given to the Palestinians, including most of the funds coming from the US.

Why is Jenin important?

One of the 19 refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, the Jenin camp was established on the northernmost edge of the territory in 1953 to house Palestinians who fled their homes during the 1948 Palestine War.

With one of the highest rates of unemployment and poverty among all refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, the number of registered refugees in Jenin was 24,239 at the end of 2023.

Mustafa says Jenin has become the “epicentre” of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

There has been a “huge schism within Palestinian politics” since October 2023 over whether to continue to pursue conciliation with Israel or revert to resistance, she notes.

“These two positions have become intractable since October 7, 2023. Eventually, they were going to come to a head, and that’s what we’re seeing today in Jenin,” she says, noting that the PA’s popularity has seen the “worst decline” in its history.

The result of that divide is that many Palestinians now consider Hamas their “de facto leader” as opposed to the PA, which is sticking to the politics of conciliation with Israel, she says.

“Hamas is the only one that is really advocating or fighting for Palestinians on the international stage or against Israel, especially given how much the situation has deteriorated not just in Gaza, but also in the (occupied) West Bank. There is a threat to the PA’s power base there,” she says.

According to Dr Ahmet Keser of Hasan Kalyoncu University, Hamas has been getting increasingly popular among Palestinians even after Israel’s full-blown war on Gaza following the October 7 cross-border attack.

Divisions within the Palestinian groups may tear apart the Palestine state-building effort though, he tells TRT World.

“Sporadic structures having little influence within the international community will weaken any possibility of achieving the objective of a sovereign Palestinian state,” he says.

Why is PA clamping down?

The coalition of resistance groups in the Jenin camp is united in their opposition to the PA. The resistance coalition includes even the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed faction of the Fatah party that dominates the PA.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades operates virtually independently from Fatah and cooperates with other resistance groups in the refugee camps in view of local considerations.

The resistance groups in Jenin consist of mostly “disenfranchised or disaffected Fatah youth”, which means the PA is losing its support base to groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, says Mustafa.

“The PA is definitely feeling a threat to its hegemony,” she adds.

Another complicating factor is the disagreement over the so-called administrative committee in Gaza, an Egyptian-brokered proposal that seeks to bring Fatah and Hamas together for the purpose of managing the civil affairs after the end of Israel’s genocidal war.

But the PA retracted its approval of the deal amid Israel’s rejection of any role for Hamas in the future of Gaza.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas fears that all money will be diverted to Gaza – and away from the occupied West Bank, where the PA is the partial administrative authority – if Gaza gets a separate administrative committee, says Mustafa.

“Gaza will become the political centre of gravity coupled with the potential of Israeli full annexation of the West Bank,” she says.

US president-elect Donald Trump might allow for some form of ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank, she says.

“That is a very real threat, which could signal the end of the PA.”

Dr Keser says the PA is trying to present itself as the sole and ultimate representative body of Palestinians by taking a clear-cut position against Hamas and other resistance groups controlling the Jenin camp.

But even if Israel distinguishes between the PA and Hamas for the time being to weaken the latter’s legitimacy and popularity, Tel Aviv’s long-term policy will remain the elimination of all Palestinian organisations, he says.