[News] Fearing PA collapse, Israel steps up West Bank attacks

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/fearing-pa-collapse-israel-steps-west-bank-attacks>
Fearing PA collapse, Israel steps up West Bank attacks

Tamara Nassar <https://electronicintifada.net/people/tamara-nassar> - 8
September 2022
------------------------------
[image: Men carry a body on a stretcher in a crowd that includes some with
rifles]

The body of 19-year-old Taher Zakarneh is carried by mourners during his
funeral in Qabatiya village near the northern West Bank City of Jenin on 5
September.
APA images

Six Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of September, as
Israeli occupation forces step up their attacks in the occupied West Bank.

The latest deaths come amid fears in Tel Aviv that the Palestinian
Authority is failing in its task of protecting Israel and its settlers
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/how-palestinian-authority-helps-protect-israeli-settlers>
.

Israel is looking for ways to prop up the PA, which it views as a proxy
force
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinian-authority-forces-are-israels-foot-soldiers>
controlling Palestinians on its behalf.

In the early hours of Thursday, an Israeli soldier shot and killed a
Palestinian teenager in Beitin village, near Ramallah.

The Israeli army accused
<https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1567643826046615552> Haitham Hani
Mubarak of attacking a soldier with a hammer and injuring him in the face.
Soldiers took Mubarak’s body after killing him.

Mubarak was a high school student, according
<https://twitter.com/asranews/status/1567797754184830976> to the head of
the PA’s prisoner affairs commission Amin Shoman. Local media circulated
his picture following his killing.

تغطية صحفية: "ارتقاء الشاب هيثم هاني مبارك من قرية أبو فلاح شرق رام الله،
بعد إصابته برصاص الاحتلال على مدخل قرية بيتين، فجر اليوم".#فلسطين
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
pic.twitter.com/KsrFOfpnR1 <https://t.co/KsrFOfpnR1>
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) September 8, 2022
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1567792420355559425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces fatally shot
<https://www.facebook.com/mohps/posts/pfbid02MU1pEQgRB26c6oXF8Bq32yfsyem4x2MCv8sj3cDhbJ7GkbS2Enh8gRUhYU1sy5bql>
Younis Ghassan Tayeh with a bullet to the chest in the al-Faraa refugee
camp near Tubas.

Israeli occupation forces killed 21 year old Younis Al-Tayeh during a raid
of Al-Far'a camp in Tubas this morning pic.twitter.com/To8K1CR8Cr
<https://t.co/To8K1CR8Cr>
— Jalal (@JalalAK_jojo) September 7, 2022
<https://twitter.com/JalalAK_jojo/status/1567379541554855936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

In graphic footage
<https://twitter.com/PalinfoAr/status/1567386649591422982> circulated by
local media, Palestinians are seen carrying the 21-year-old on a stretcher
as he bleeds.

The day before, Israeli occupation forces fatally shot
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-09-06/ty-article/.premium/palestinian-killed-while-live-streaming-on-tiktok-during-israeli-armys-demolition/00000183-1297-d5cb-adb3-33dfc6c40000>
another Palestinian man who was livestreaming video of their raid in the
city of Jenin on the social media app TikTok.

Around 15,000 people were watching Muhammad Sabaaneh’s livestream during
which Israeli forces shot him.

Sabaaneh was filming the revenge demolition of a house owned by the family
of Raed Hazem <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/raed-hazem>, a
Palestinian from Jenin refugee camp who shot and killed three Israelis last
April.

Israeli forces had killed Hazem hours after the attack.

Such punitive home demolitions
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/punitive-home-demolitions> – which
Israel carries out against the families of Palestinians it says carried out
attacks on Israelis, but never against Jews who attack Palestinians – are a
form of collective punishment
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/collective-punishment> forbidden under
international law.

In a recording <https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1566940225913380865> of
the stream apparently after Sabaaneh was shot, the camera’s view is
obscured but sounds can still be heard.

Sabaaneh’s picture was circulated by local media following his killing:

مصادر صحفية: "الشـ....ـهيد محمد موسى سباعنة الذي ارتقى بعد إصابته برصا..ص
جيش الاحتلا...ل خلال اقتحام #جنين
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%AC%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%86?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>".
pic.twitter.com/VnV5XrfLnX <https://t.co/VnV5XrfLnX>
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) September 5, 2022
<https://twitter.com/PalinfoAr/status/1566937731497852931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

On 5 September, Israeli occupation forces killed 19-year-old Taher Zakarneh
in Qabatiya village near Jenin.

تغطية صحفية| وزارة الصحة: "ارتقاء الشاب طاهر محمد زكــارنة بعد إصابته برصاص
الاحتلال في قباطية بجنين". pic.twitter.com/shP7nZQdJq
<https://t.co/shP7nZQdJq>
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) September 5, 2022
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1566662175694938112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Zakarneh’s father said soldiers opened fire on his son’s legs then at his
head while he was sitting in a military jeep with the back door open.

According <https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1566709914420105217> to his
father, Zakarneh had been imprisoned for eight months by Israel and
released a little over a year ago.

Meanwhile, Samer Mahmoud Khalid died
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1565158045008764929> after being shot in
the neck during an Israeli raid in Balata refugee camp near Nablus on 1
September.

Israeli authorities claimed
<https://twitter.com/AvichayAdraee/status/1565246214936862720> Khaled was
killed by Palestinian gunfire and circulated a video of Palestinian
militants firing their weapons into the air as supposed evidence.

This is almost identical
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/al-jazeeras-iconic-voice-palestine-killed-during-israeli-raid>
to how Israel first initially tried to explain away
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-refuses-probe-soldiers-who-killed-shireen-abu-akleh>
the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh in May. Israel this week finally admitted
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/shireen-abu-aklehs-family-rejects-latest-israeli-cover>
that one of its soldiers most likely killed the Al Jazeera journalist.

Given the Israeli army’s record
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hasbara> of lying
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-fakes-another-video-hamas-rockets-next-gaza-homes>
and shooting-to-kill
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-codifies-shoot-kill-policy-against-palestinians>
Palestinians, its claims can never be taken at face value.

Palestinian Authority security forces reportedly fired stun grenades at
Samer Khaled’s funeral procession. Palestinians protested the PA crackdown
by setting tires ablaze at the Ein refugee camp in Nablus and blocked the
entrance to the camp.

مصادر محلية: "احتجاجات وإشعال للإطارات المطاطية في مخيم العين بنابلس،
احتجاجًا على إطلاق الأجهزة الأمنية الفلسطينية قنابل الغاز صوب مسيرة تشييع
الشــًهيد سامر خالد". pic.twitter.com/eBydMcbots <https://t.co/eBydMcbots>
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) September 1, 2022
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1565280181765509122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

شبان يغلقون مدخل مخيم العين في نابلس، احتجاجًا على إطلاق قوات السلطة لقنابل
الغاز خلال مسيرة تشييع الشهيد سامر خالد. pic.twitter.com/O1JOFXueg9
<https://t.co/O1JOFXueg9>
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) September 1, 2022
<https://twitter.com/ShehabAgency/status/1565278196391677952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

A 26-year-old Palestinian man, Yazan Afaneh, was also killed on the same
day in al-Bireh, a town near Ramallah, reportedly by Israeli fire.

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) September 1, 2022
<https://twitter.com/ShehabAgency/status/1565311651376762881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Israel aims to prop up PA

Israeli occupation forces have intensified their lethal raids across the
West Bank in recent months, particularly around Jenin and Nablus in the
north, amid a resurgence of Palestinian armed resistance.

This comes as Israeli leaders are expressing alarm that the Palestinian
Authority is losing control over the pockets of the West Bank where Israel
allows it to operate.

Jenin remains a center for armed Palestinian resistance to Israeli military
occupation in the West Bank, despite all efforts by Israel and the
Palestinian Authority to suppress it.

On Thursday, the Jenin brigade of the Islamic Jihad resistance group released
a video <https://t.me/sarayajnein/459> it said showed a resistance fighter
blowing up an Israeli military vehicle with a remotely detonated bomb.

“The absence of control on the part of Palestinian security apparatus in
certain parts of Judea and Samaria has created fertile ground for the
growth of terrorism,” Israeli army chief of staff Aviv Kochavi said
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-09-07/ty-article/.premium/israel-weighs-measures-to-prop-up-ailing-palestinian-authority/00000183-166a-d6f3-a7ff-feea2b000000>,
using Israel’s pseudo-biblical name for the West Bank.

Israel uses the term “terrorist” to refer to almost any Palestinian armed
or unarmed resistance.

“In places like Jenin and Nablus, they have little control on the ground,”
Kochavi added.

“The situation on the ground is worse than it seems,” Ronen Bar, the head
of Israel’s domestic spying agency Shin Bet, reportedly told a visiting
State Department official this week.

Biden administration officials are now reportedly
<https://www.axios.com/2022/09/07/us-israel-west-bank-palestinian-authority-crisis>
pressuring Israel “to take urgent steps to stabilize the Palestinian
Authority.”

“Israel is considering stepping up the economic assistance to the PA that
the current government is already providing,” Tel Aviv newspaper *Haaretz*
reported
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-09-07/ty-article/.premium/israel-weighs-measures-to-prop-up-ailing-palestinian-authority/00000183-166a-d6f3-a7ff-feea2b000000>
.

The Palestinian Authority has since its creation in the mid-1990s
maintained close cooperation with Israeli occupation forces under the
banner of “security coordination.”

Israeli politicians love to attack and abuse the Palestinian Authority and
accuse it of supporting “terrorism” – especially during election campaigns.
But the reality is that Israel relies on the PA, and when it looks like it
is teetering, Tel Aviv and Washington always rush to the rescue.
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