Wednesday’s visit would mark Abbas’s second official trip to Jenin since being elected chairman of the P.A. 18 years ago.
By JNS
Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas will make a rare visit to Jenin on Wednesday, a week after the Israel Defense Forces concluded a major counterterrorism operation in the northern Samaria city, Israel’s public broadcaster reported, citing Arab sources.
Abbas was also considering entering Jenin’s refugee camp, often referred to by Palestinians as the “Martyr’s Capital,” according to Kan News. Palestinians reported the deployment of officers from the P.A. “Presidential Guard” in the U.N.-administered camp ahead of Abbas’s expected arrival from Ramallah by Jordanian helicopter later on Wednesday.
The delegation will also include PLO Secretary General Hussein al-Sheikh and Majed Faraj, head of the P.A. General Intelligence Service. Among other local officials, the men are scheduled to meet with Akram Rajoub, the P.A.-appointed governor of Jenin.
Wednesday’s visit would mark Abbas’s second official trip to Jenin since being elected P.A. chairman 18 years ago, with his last known public tour of the city having taken place in the summer of 2012.
Recent polling shows that the 87-year-old Abbas is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, who increasingly support armed terrorist groups. In Jenin specifically, at least 45% of residents are believed to be affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Indeed, the P.A., which is obligated under the Oslo Accords to arrest terrorists, has allowed Jenin to become a hornet’s nest for Palestinian armed groups. Terrorists from Jenin have been responsible for more than 50 shootings in 2023, and 59 people from the city have carried out terror attacks since the beginning of 2022, killing three civilians and wounding 14.
Speaking on CNN on July 9, U.S. President Joe Biden warned that the leadership in Ramallah “has lost its credibility,” explaining that the P.A. had created a “vacuum for extremism.”
In the early hours of Monday, July 3, the IDF sent more than 1,000 troops into Jenin in a major counterterror operation. During the 48-hour raid, Israeli forces killed 12 Palestinians—all confirmed terrorists—and arrested more than 100 terror suspects.
However, hundreds of armed terrorists escaped the city to avoid engaging the IDF’s brigade-sized force of special units.
As Israeli troops withdrew, Jenin’s P.A. mayor instructed local terrorist groups to operate with caution. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Nidal Al-Obeidi warned that the army’s departure might be part of a “tactical plan to target resistance fighters after the end of the operation.”