After taking heavy losses from Israeli forces, Hamas is now picking fights with the Palestinian Authority (PA) as its manpower continues to dwindle, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Gaza-based Islamic terrorist organization Hamas and the PA, which governs much of the West Bank, have been ramping up fighting over the course of December, according to the WSJ Wednesday. The renewed fighting between Hamas and the PA comes during a period of high losses and bloodshed, with Israeli authorities claiming to have killed over half of the terrorist group’s total fighters since the start of the war, along with pressures to negotiate peace by an incoming Trump administration.
The victor could determine who serves as the face of the Palestinian cause, according to the WSJ. The most recent fighting has centered around Jenin refugee camp, which has long been a center of anti-Israel activity in the West Bank.
“The goal of this operation is to restore control of the Jenin Camp from the control of outlaws, who have embittered the daily lives of citizens,” PA Brig. Gen. Anwar Rajab said Dec. 14, according to the WSJ.
The groups have been at odds before, taking part in a battle over the town of Fatah in 2007, resulting in the Hamas takeover after a PA defeat, according to the WSJ.
The Biden administration has long proposed the PA as a viable alternative to govern the Gaza Strip in place of Hamas, however Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not share his view, saying the PA is still too anti-Israel, according to the WSJ.
“This truth I tell to our American friends, and I put the brakes on the attempt to coerce us to a reality that would endanger the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said in Jan. 2024 regarding the possibility of a PA-lead state after the war, according to NPR.
Israel said it has no involvement in the operations, but also added that they have common enemies with the PA, namely Hamas, according to the WSJ.
If the PA succeeds in fighting Hamas, it could signal a “shift” in the region where the PA might focus on uprooting Hamas presence from other towns in the West Bank, Michael Milstein, a former senior intelligence officer for Palestinian affairs in the Israeli army, told the WSJ.
The Israeli Foreign Press Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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