The US is putting the onus on the Palestinian Authority to improve security in the West Bank, despite Israeli raids.
The top diplomat of the United States, Antony Blinken, has put pressure on Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to “regain control” of Jenin and Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to a report, putting responsibility for the escalating violence in the territory on the Palestinians, despite continued Israeli raids which have killed at least 200 people in the last year.
The US plan would see the PA clamp down on newly emergent Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank, sources told the Axios news website.
According to the report, published on Wednesday, Palestinians expressed reservations over the lack of emphasis in the plan on Israel de-escalating and decreasing its raids in the West Bank.
The report came on the back of a Middle East tour by Blinken earlier this week, where he first met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Both visits took place amid heightened tensions between Israel and Palestine after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians last Thursday in the Jenin refugee camp during a military raid. Another man later died from his wounds on Saturday.
The confrontation led to several hours of intense fighting in which an elderly woman also lost her life.
A day later, an attacker shot dead seven people near a synagogue in an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.
Citing Israeli and US sources, the Axios report said Blinken had urged the PA president “to accept and implement a security plan” that was drafted by US security coordinator Michael Fenzel.
The plan, the sources said, includes the PA’s security forces regaining control of the northern part of the West Bank, especially Nablus and Jenin. The officials also said a special Palestinian force would receive training to then be deployed in the area to counter armed groups’ resistance.
The two cities have emerged as a hub for armed groups composed of young Palestinians who have grown frustrated by the occupation and the increasingly unpopular PA.
