3 Palestinians killed amid Jenin clashes between PA forces, terror groups in West Bank
PA says ‘lawless individuals’ responsible for death of 44-year-old and his son, which took place in different location from where security forces are operating
A Palestinian man and his son were killed in Jenin, local medical officials said on Friday, as a month-long standoff between Palestinian Authority security forces and terrorist groups in the northern West Bank city continued.
A spokesman for the PA security forces confirmed that Mahmoud al-Hajj was killed along with his son Qassem, while his daughter was injured “in an incident” in the Jenin refugee camp — a crowded quarter that houses descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven out in the Israeli War of Independence in 1948.
“The area where the incident took place is outside the scope of the operational area where the security forces are active within the camp,” the spokesman said, accusing “lawless individuals” of carrying out the killings.
Wisam Bakr, director of the Jenin government hospital, confirmed to AFP that Hajj’s body and his injured daughter had been brought to his facility, while Qassem’s body was transported to another hospital in Jenin.
Bakr did not disclose details about the circumstances of their deaths.
The PA health ministry in Ramallah and the Palestinian Red Crescent also did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
ارتقاء محمود الحاج الجلقموسي ونجله قسم برصاص أجهزة أمن السلطة في مخيم جنين المحاصر منذ شهر. pic.twitter.com/DHMowDR9gV
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 3, 2025
Separately, a security forces officer died in what PA officials said was an accident, bringing to six the total number of PA forces to have died in the Jenin operation, which began on December 5. There were no further details.
At least eight Palestinians have been killed in Jenin over the past month, one of them a member of the armed Jenin Brigades, which includes members of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Later Friday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces raided the nearby Balata refugee camp, wounding seven people with gunfire in the latest violence to hit the territory. Two of the injured were in serious condition with chest wounds.
The Israeli military said it is checking reports regarding the raid.
Palestinian security forces moved into Jenin last month in an operation officials say is aimed at suppressing armed groups of “outlaws” who have built up a power base in the city and its adjacent refugee camp.
The operation has deepened splits among Palestinians in the West Bank, where the PA enjoys little popular support but where many fear being dragged into a Gaza-style conflict with Israel if the terror groups strengthen their hold.
The Al Jazeera television network has been critical of the PA crackdown, leading Ramallah to order on Wednesday a temporary suspension of the Qatari network’s broadcasts and activities in the West Bank.
“The decision also includes temporarily freezing the work of all journalists, employees, crews and affiliated channels until their legal status is rectified due to Al Jazeera’s violations of the laws and regulations in force in Palestine,” the official PA news agency Wafa said.
According to Wafa, the suspension is a response to Al Jazeera’s “misinformation, incitement, sedition and interference in Palestinian internal affairs.”
In its own statement, Fatah accused the broadcaster of sowing division in “our Arab homeland in general and in Palestine in particular.” The party encouraged Palestinians not to cooperate with the network.
Al Jazeera denounced Wednesday’s decision as “an attempt to discourage it from reporting spiraling events in the occupied territories.”
It called on the PA to rescind the decision and allow its journalists to report freely from the West Bank without intimidation.
The Wednesday decision comes more than three months after Israeli forces raided the network’s office in Ramallah.
The network is already banned from broadcasting from Israel amid a long-running feud with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has only worsened during the ongoing war in Gaza. Israeli officials have long complained about Al Jazeera’s coverage, which they say is heavily influenced by Hamas and endangers IDF troops in Gaza.
