Palestinian Authority security forces fire at civilians to disperse crowd after Jenin raid

Palestinian Authority security forces stationed at a hospital in the West Bank camp of Jenin opened fire on a crowd of over 100 residents near the hospital on Saturday night, injuring at least six.

The civilian residents had come to the hospital to demand free discharge for around six fighters in the Jenin Brigades, an armed resistance group affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, some of whom were receiving treatment at the hospital.

The incident marked a tense parting shot from the PA after five days during which their security forces stormed the camp to clash with the brigades, killing a commander on Saturday.

Residents' anger was palpable following the assault on the city, which has been stormed multiple times over the past year. But this time it struck a new tone, as instead of Israeli forces shooting at the city’s youth, it was instead “our own people,” as one resident said, preferring to speak anonymously.

At around 7 pm on Saturday, Palestinian Authority forces began to withdraw from the camp to residents’ delight. As PA soldiers began to return to armored personal carriers, residents who had been sheltering in their homes for days could finally emerge to the city’s streets, where they chanted “freedom” and “brigade,” referring to the Jenin Brigades.

Shortly thereafter, around 150 residents, mainly women and children, began to march into the street leading to Jenin’s Shifa Hospital, demanding the release of fighters injured during the clashes and admitted to the facility for treatment.

PA personnel were stationed around and within the hospital. One was visibly reloading his ammunition in the lobby, while other soldiers moved to and from a back room. I and other journalists had attempted earlier on Saturday to enter the hospital to speak with those wounded by the Palestinian Authority security force, but we were denied entry by a group of armed soldiers guarding the entrance, one of whom said that letting journalists inside would “pose a security risk.”

Residents came to believe that the security forces intended to arrest those who had been injured, as they likely had participated in the fighting, which was confirmed by the soldier guarding the entrance to the hospital, who declined to provide his full name.

Patients receiving treatment within hospitals in the West Bank have been arrested or killed by the Israeli military in multiple incidents over recent months.

As elderly residents of the city of Jenin and young people marched peacefully down the street alongside the armored personnel carriers, the sound of a flashbang grenade rang out.

Then there was chaos. Palestinian Authority soldiers, some of them with the newly formed security services unit, began firing tear gas and stun grenades at the protesters. As tear gas filled the street, I witnessed an elderly woman faint directly in front of us. An injured man also collapsed on the street as medics struggled to reach the front of the crowd. At least six protesters in total were injured, said a Palestinian Red Crescent worker at the hospital not authorized to comment publicly.

Despite being clearly identified as press, I and Mariam Barghouti, who was also reporting from the camp, were fired on directly by the PA forces. Gunshots rang out for at least five minutes as the PA forces appeared to be shooting over the crowds’ heads and at targets on the camp’s outskirts.

Fighting stopped in the camp as of the withdrawal last night, but it left another lasting mark on the city, as residents were forced to confront another period of violence in a year marked by atrocities, including multiple incursions into the camp by the Israeli military.

In the aftermath, Shamekh, a young man who lives in the camp, told Mada Masr that “the Palestinian Authority doesn’t want to solve the crisis, only to get rid of the resistance.”

The Palestinian Security Services, whose elite subgroup killed on Saturday young brigade commander Yazid Jaayseh, has become increasingly involved in quashing dissent, both armed or peaceful, throughout the occupied West Bank.

Earlier this year, the United States urged the Palestinian Authority to take a law-and-order approach in the area.

During a brief press conference outside the camp on Saturday, spokesperson for the PSS Anwar Rajab said that their operations were intended to prevent something like October 7 from happening again. He labeled the five-day storming of Jenin, “Operation Protect the Homeland.”

Earlier in the operation, PA forces killed one man and arrested another.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad mourned Jaayseh on Saturday, with the former condemning the PA’s targeting of the resistance forces as an attack on the national movement resisting the Occupation, stating it would fuel internal disputes. Hamas leader Abdel Rahman Shadid told the press on Saturday that, since October 7, the PA has killed 13 Palestinians.

As the gunfire faded on Saturday evening, children returned to playing in the streets, many waving Palestinian flags.