On December 28, young journalism student Shatha Sabbagh left her home in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, with her mother and her sister’s two young children. A moment later, she was shot in the head and killed by a sniper’s bullet. She was only 21 years old.

Shatha was killed in the same refugee camp where the veteran journalist lived Sherine Abu Okla She was assassinated by the Israeli regime in 2022, but Shatha was not killed by a soldier from the Israeli regime forces. According to her family, the bullet that killed her was fired by Palestinian Authority security forces.

For the past monthPalestinian security forces imposed a siege on the Jenin refugee camp, in a coordinated effort with the Israelis, as part of their efforts to eliminate armed resistance in the northern West Bank.

While the Palestinian Authority has managed to subjugate resistance to Israeli occupation in many other urban centers through threats and repression, there remain pockets in the north where armed resistance groups remain present. The city of Jenin, and especially its refugee camp, where Shirin and Shatha were killed, is one of these enclaves. That is why the camp, which houses more than 15,000 people, has come to be seen as a symbol of resistance and steadfastness and a thorn in the side of the Palestinian security forces.

The truth is that the very existence of the Palestinian Authority depends on eliminating such resistance to the Israeli regime in all areas under its supposed control. As such, it constantly coordinates its actions with the Israeli army, and uses methods of repression that are often indistinguishable from their own. In fact, one could easily mistake the Palestinian Authority forces for the Israeli army, were it not for the difference in their uniforms.

While the Israelis continue to commit genocide in Gaza, Palestinian security forces have embarked on large-scale aggression against Jenin. They imposed a continuous siege on the refugee camp, cutting off water and electricity and preventing the entry of most basic supplies. Palestinian security forces also deployed snipers on rooftops and set up checkpoints in the streets to limit the movement of resistance fighters.

There were also reports of beatings, arrests, and torture. A team from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to attest They were arrested, beaten, and interrogated for two and a half days while trying to deliver medicines to the besieged families.

In a A video doing the rounds On Palestinian social media, two men are forced to stand on one leg and read “President Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] He is God” over and over again. In another video, members of the Palestinian security forces beat a young man unconscious, apparently because he criticized the Palestinian Authority’s siege of the Jenin refugee camp. Perhaps not surprisingly, many use the word “shabiha” to describe the Palestinian security forces – which The term commonly used to refer to forces and groups that were loyal to former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Camp residents took to the streets in protest and demanded that the Palestinian Authority stop its brutal attack and put an end to the bloodshed between relatives. But these calls were ignored. Instead, Palestinian security forces insist that resistance fighters either give up their weapons or leave the camp, something they have flatly rejected. It is not yet clear how the matter will develop, but what is certain is that more Palestinian blood will be shed before it ends.

For the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, the operation in Jenin forms part of a much larger picture – one that allows it to position itself as the body that will assume control of Gaza after the ceasefire. The logic here is that if the Palestinian Authority can prove its ability to suppress and even eliminate armed resistance in the West Bank, Israel and the United States will facilitate its concentration in Gaza. However, while The Biden administration indicated Since it would support the Palestinian Authority’s seizure of power, the Netanyahu government did not make such a signal. On the contrary, it categorically declared that it would reject such a scenario. However, the Palestinian Authority leadership continues to play its role as a local enforcer in the hope of getting more crumbs from the master’s table.

As if the Palestinian Authority wants to prove its guilt and pour more salt on the wound, it recently announced its decision to suspend the operations of Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank, as punishment for its coverage of the events in Jenin. The Palestinian Authority follows in the footsteps of the Israeli government, which also banned the media network in May 2024, as a direct response to its coverage of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

While the betrayal of the Palestinian Authority’s leadership and its security coordination with the Israeli regime is nothing new, its ongoing siege of Jenin has taken its betrayal of the Palestinian people to a whole new level. The casual shedding of civilian blood, and the Shabiha-style beatings and torture, prove that they are all too willing to cross red lines that the Palestinian people are unlikely to forget or forgive. None of this bodes well for the longevity of a leadership already suffering from a legitimacy crisis due to its failure to take a real stand against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.