The major military operation of the Israeli army in the Jenin refugee camp, which began in the early hours of the morning on Monday and ended 48 hours later, was described by the Israeli government and some experts as a “success”, because it would have achieved most of the objectives that the Army had set for itself. Many experts, however, have noted that the operation, in which 12 people were killed and hundreds injured, in addition to the immediate counter-terrorism objectives, had no broader strategic intent, and instead of solving the long-standing problems in Jenin and in the West Bank it could risk amplifying them.
In its operation, which was aimed at targeting and weakening Palestinian armed groups located in the Jenin refugee camp, the army said it had arrested about 150 suspected militiamen, seized caches of weapons, cash and mines, including one under a mosque, and destroying a local militia command center. The army’s intent, in addition to the arrests and kidnappings, was to weaken the control of the armed groups over the Jenin refugee camp, which for some time now had become very dangerous to enter both for the Israeli army and for the men of the ‘Palestinian Authority, i.e. the political body which would have formal authority over the West Bank.
While these objectives have been more or less achieved, the Israeli military operation has not achieved any long-term results. All experts expect that the groups that have lost weapons and means will try to rearm themselves in a short time, and that the Israeli army will be forced into new raids. Itamar Yaar, a former member of Israel’s National Security Council, he said al New York Times that “the operation was rather short and limited”, and that new raids could become necessary “even tomorrow”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said on Tuesday that the operation in Jenin would be the beginning of “regular raids and constant control of the territory”.
Then there is the high risk that a very violent operation such as the one carried out by the Israeli army in the Jenin refugee camp could provoke retaliation. Some have already taken place, such as Tuesday’s Tel Aviv attack claimed by Hamas, in which a Palestinian man ran over some pedestrians, or the firing of five rockets from the Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, the operation has probably fueled the anger and resentment of the population of the Jenin refugee camp.
Since Wednesday morning, as the Israeli army gradually withdrew from the refugee camp, the more than 3,000 people who had been forced to flee the violence have returned to their homes: many of them to find them destroyed or badly damaged. “My house is completely destroyed. It’s all broken and burned.” he said at the BBC one of these people.
Funerals were also held on Wednesday for 10 of the 12 Palestinians killed by the army during the operation in Jenin. The army claims they were all fighters: the Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad claimed eight of the men killed belonged to its group, while another armed group said one of its men had been killed. At the moment there is no certain information on the others. (An Israeli soldier was also killed, probably by “friendly fire”).
During the funeral, shots were fired into the air to commemorate the dead, and anti-Israel slogans were shouted. Besides Israel, however, the Palestinian Authority has been criticized almost equally harshly. When three senior Authority officials showed up at the funeral, many people shouted at them: ‘Go away! Go away!», and there were some clashes. Security guards accompanying the three officials evacuated them, also using tear gas to make them escape.
Residents of the Jenin refugee camp are angry at the Palestinian Authority first of all because it would not have done enough to defend them from the attack: it has called the Israeli operation a “war crime”, but has done nothing concrete to stop it. But in reality nobody really expected that the Palestinian Authority would do anything.
In theory, the PA would have control over part of the West Bank, the territory Israel has occupied since 1967 and which Palestinians claim as their own, but it lacks the means to actually enforce its power. According to various international agreements, the control of public order in the West Bank should be shared between the Israeli army and the forces of the Palestinian Authority, but these for some time now, partly due to lack of means and partly because they are forced, have effectively left the field free to the Israeli army.
The incompetence of the Palestinian Authority is one of the reasons why not only a political but also a military fragmentation has been going on among the Palestinian forces for some time now. In recent years, numerous independent armed groups have sprung up – including in the Jenin refugee camp – which do not respond to larger groups such as Hamas and Fatah, the party of the President of the Authority Mahmoud Abbas. These independent groups, often very violent, are unpredictable and difficult to monitor and control, and are believed to be a serious threat to the stability of the area.