The IDF will remain in Jenin even after the current eight-day-long operation ends with no withdrawal date, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday, potentially signaling a decades-long change in policy.
Generally, since the Second Intifada of 2000-2005, the IDF has not stationed troops for any extended period within major Palestinian cities like Jenin.
Rather, the IDF has carried out several multi-day operations in Jenin since mid-2023 but has always completely withdrawn its forces afterward.
If IDF forces were to stay in Jenin indefinitely, there could be wider diplomatic consequences, both with the Palestinian Authority, Western allies, and moderate Sunni Middle Eastern allies.
It is also unclear if such a longer stay would mean the IDF taking on additional responsibilities for managing Jenin, given that the PA might refuse to carry out certain services while IDF troops remain there.
Seeking to understand how long Katz really intended for the IDF to remain in Jenin, sources signaled that Katz’s statement was a change in policy but did not necessarily commit to a very long-term stay.
Regarding the PA, Katz seemed to indirectly threaten its continued existence due to the PA’s ongoing program of providing financial benefits to certain terrorists and their families, better known as “pay for slay.”Katz suggested the PA is also completely failing to fight terror in the West Bank.
Despite Katz’s comments, top IDF officials in the West Bank, in other parts of the military, and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) have given the PA credit for improving its crackdown in recent months on terror in the West Bank, generally, and in Jenin, specifically.
In fact, before the IDF operation began on January 21, the PA spent around six weeks cracking down on terror in Jenin, including in its refugee camp.
This followed some Jenin terrorists stealing a PA car and bombing a PA police station.
And when the IDF went into Jenin, videos on social media seemed to show clear and direct coordination between PA forces leaving and IDF forces entering.
Partial credit to the PA?
None of the Israeli defense establishment would say that the PA has done enough to fight terror in the West Bank, but all of those who The Jerusalem Post has heard from would give the PA significant partial credit, as opposed to Katz’s critique.
Until he was fired in early November, former defense minister Yoav Gallant, who generally did not like the PA, still gave it partial credit for working with Israel against terror in the West Bank.
Katz’s broadside against the PA also comes as pressure increases from the West and Sunni allies to allow the PA to return to operating in Gaza as part of a broader deal regarding Gaza’s post-war future and normalization between Israel and the Saudis.
To date, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed allowing the PA to regain a foothold in Gaza, especially given the background of the successful Hamas coup against the PA in Gaza in 2007.