Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan urged the Israeli government on Monday to renew military ground operations in the Jenin area after Palestinian Authority security forces were seen with rocket-propelled grenade launchers during clashes with local terrorist groups.
“If terrorists are unafraid to show off RPGs and heavy weapons, it means they are testing us. We must stop this threat with an iron fist,” Dagan said in remarks shared by his office. “We are all obligated to prevent an Oct. 7 in northern Samaria—and from there in the cities in the center,” he said, referring to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel.
Dagan renewed his call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz to order the Israel Defense Forces to “immediately launch a ground maneuver in Jenin, confiscate weapons, arrest terrorists and eliminate their Nazi terror infrastructure.”
“The barbarians of Hamas and Fatah are not deterred; they both want to murder Jews,” he said. “The Israeli people demand a ground operation in Jenin and northern Samaria and to be victorious like in Lebanon and Gaza. We must eliminate terror, before another Oct. 7 happens here.”
Dagan’s demand came in response to a report earlier on Monday by Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster that showed P.A. forces brandishing RPGs during an operation to arrest Yazan al-Hanoun, described as a senior leader in the Iranian-backed Jenin Battalion terrorist coalition.
The IDF was reportedly not aware that Palestinian factions in Judea and Samaria possessed these kinds of heavy weapons.
Israeli security forces had launched a probe into the incident, Kan reported, noting that P.A. police are not authorized to use RPGs. According to an initial investigation, the P.A. seized the weapons from terrorists.
Earlier this month, the Palestinian Authority launched a rare counter-terror raid in Jenin, where Ramallah for years refused to act against Iranian-backed terror groups, in violation of its commitments under the Oslo Accords.
Ramallah launched its operation, dubbed “Defense of the Homeland,” following the Dec. 5 seizure by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad of a P.A. vehicle and amid fears that terrorists in the Samaria city could attempt a coup inspired by the swift takedown of Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria.
Many members of Israel’s security establishment support the P.A.’s control over parts of Judea and Samaria as a “moderating force” against Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups.
However, Jerusalem only approves the transfer of small arms and light weapons to the P.A. due to fear that Ramallah’s officers could turn on Israel and decide to join terrorist forces.
Members of the P.A. forces have a long history of carrying out attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. Last year, the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah faction boasted that most of its “martyrs” had served in Ramallah’s police.
In addition, Hamas has recruited dozens of P.A. operatives, using them as terrorist combatants and for intelligence, Kan reported in mid-2023.
Last week, Axios reported that the Biden administration privately asked Israel to green-light an “urgent” request for U.S. military aid to the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinian and U.S. officials told the outlet that P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas’s office had briefed the Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s team ahead of the raid. U.S. security coordinator Gen. Mike Fenzel met with the Palestinian police chiefs in preparation for the operation and went over their plans, the Palestinian official claimed.
Ramallah reportedly gave Fenzel a list of equipment its forces urgently need, including ammunition, helmets, bulletproof vests, radios, night vision equipment, bomb disposal suits and armored vehicles.
The Biden administration reportedly also asked Jerusalem to release some of the P.A. tax revenues it has frozen so Ramallah can pay the salaries of its forces. Jerusalem has frozen the funds in response to the P.A.’s longstanding “pay for slay” policy in which it disburses monthly stipends to convicted terrorists and the families of slain terrorists.