'Israel' worried about PA participation in West Bank attacks: media

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The increased participation of Palestinian security forces in operations in the West Bank worries the Israeli security and military establishments, Israeli media said Sunday.

"There has been a conflict within Fatah, and when they saw that Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) was growing weak and that they can no longer tolerate being called collaborators (with Israel) and standing idle [in the face of Israeli brutality], that's why it happened," Israeli Channel 13 Arab affairs commentator Zvi Yehezkeli said in response to an inquiry regarding the reason why Fatah is back to participating in attacks in the occupied West Bank.

"By the way, this was out of the limelight over the past year, and I saw the Chief of Staff referring to it last week. Israel hoped it wouldn't be big, but pay attention to the numbers. 17 Palestinian policemen carried out attacks, and three were killed during the confrontations. That is not a marginal phenomenon," Yehezkeli said.

"This means that Fatah took some time to understand reality, and reality is that: 'we cannot sit on the fence'," he noted.

Israeli Channel 13 correspondent Or Heller explained that the Israeli occupation perceives Fatah's participation in the attacks as a "dangerous phenomenon," adding that they were "closely following up on that."

"They tally numbers differently. They talk about four Palestinian security service members who have recently turned into saboteurs. They actually refer to a disturbing phenomenon within families; for example, in Nablus and Jenin, a brother is in the security services, and another brother is a saboteur, and then the path between things becomes even shorter," he added.

"The Shin Bet and the Israeli army tonight have tens of warnings about attacks around the holidays; therefore, we will see operations to thwart attacks, and nighttime arrests will increase until Rosh Hashanah, especially in Nablus and Jenin," the Israeli journalist said.

An Israeli officer was killed Wednesday during an armed attack on the Al-Jalameh checkpoint, which led to the martyrdom of two freedom fighters.

Al Mayadeen correspondent reported that Resistance fighters Ahmad and Abdelrahman Abed from Jenin were martyred after armed confrontations with the IOF at the checkpoint.

Israeli media reported that an Israeli occupation watchtower monitored the Resistance fighters near the Al-Jalama checkpoint, where the two were surrounded and shot dead by IOF gunfire.

In the same context, Israeli news website Haaretz reported that "as of earlier this week, 81 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in 2022, making it the deadliest year since 2015 – in which 99 were killed."

Haaretz highlighted that about 31 Palestinians were martyred in the Jenin region in the past year, where Israeli occupation forces have been conducting nightly raids.