Shatha Sabbagh, a journalism student in her early 20s from Jenin in the occupied West Bank, was returning home from buying sweets with her mother and three other relatives when gunfire erupted.

The group dived to the ground, but it was too late for Sand Tower. "She looked at me with her eyes open," her mother, Naheed al-Sabagh, said, her voice starting to crack. "Then I saw something coming out of her head. That's when I realized I had lost my daughter."

The Jenin refugee camp where Shatta was shot dead - whose narrow streets have become one of the main strongholds of Palestinian militant groups in the West Bank - has been the target of deadly and devastating attacks by Israeli security forces on several occasions in recent years.

But when Shatta died in late December, something even rarer happened: Palestinian Authority security forces, exercising limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank, took action against militants in camps.

Palestinian officials said the operation, now in its sixth week and the largest in the Palestinian Authority's 30 years of existence, aimed at restoring law and order and cracking down on "lawless elements" in the restive camps, has already exceeded within the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. PA control.

The operation has also been widely interpreted as an attempt by the Palestinian Authority to prove to the international community that it has the ability to play a role in governing Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas in the enclave ends - an idea that has been met with support from the Palestinian Authority. support. The United States, Arab and European countries, but faced strong opposition from Israel's hard-line government.

Israel and Hamas finally reached a multi-stage deal this week to end their 15-month war and release hostages still being held in Gaza. But it is unclear whether this will lead to a permanent end to the war, with far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government demanding that Israel resume hostilities.

"PA wants to show... Whoever thinks about the day after tomorrow can make rules and laws that they can play not only in the West Bank but also in Gaza," said Adnan Alsaba, a political analyst in Jenin effect. "

But the killings of civilians such as Shatta have sparked public outrage and threaten to further undermine the weakened Palestinian Authority's eroding domestic legitimacy. Her mother blamed the incident on the Palestinian Authority, which blamed the militants. It was founded as a stepping stone to Palestinian statehood and is now seen by many Palestinians as an enabler of the Israeli occupation.

"The people in the camp once had one enemy. Now they have two," Sabbagh said. “(Israel) and the Palestinian Authority — they are two sides of the same coin.”

The Palestinian Authority operation began in December after militants seized two Palestinian Authority vehicles, marched around the camp to protest the arrest of two Islamic Jihad militants, and opened fire on municipal buildings. The Palestinian Authority has since said it has arrested dozens of alleged militants, defused improvised bombs and seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition.

But the situation in Jenin remains unstable. When the Financial Times visited, the road leading to the camp was blocked by Palestinian Authority vehicles and checkpoints. The two sides exchanged fire many times, in which a 50-year-old woman was killed.

Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority security forces, said that in addition to restoring law and order, the operation was also aimed at preventing militants from launching attacks and providing the Israeli government with an excuse to launch large-scale operations in the territory.

Netanyahu's government is widely considered the most right-wing in Israel's history, backed by ministers determined to annex the West Bank and emboldened by Donald Trump's re-election.

"We don't want a full-scale confrontation with (Israel)," Rajab said. "We are going to be the losers in this confrontation. We don't want anyone to drag us there."

But others believe the latest Palestinian Authority action - which Rajab said involved "hundreds" of soldiers - is far from calculated and say it puts the authorities in a difficult position.

“The Palestinian Authority does not have the capacity to suppress the camp with large-scale force, because to do so would cause massive casualties, plummet support, and potentially trigger unrest in other parts of the West.” Banks, ” said Ibrahim Dalalsha, director of the Horizon Center for Political Studies in Ramallah.

“But after sending in all these troops, if the Palestinian Authority backs down now, it will collapse not only in the eyes of its international and regional partners, but also in terms of domestic politics.”

For now, both sides in Jenin appear to be relatively restrained.

Over the past six weeks, hostilities have claimed the lives of six members of the Palestinian security services and nine others. The Palestinian Authority said the three were militants, but according to the United Nations, only one was armed.

By comparison, a major Israeli operation in Jenin last year killed 21 people in nine days, according to Palestinian officials. Israel said at the time that it had killed 14 militants. Twelve people were killed in two Israeli drone attacks on Jenin this week. According to the latest United Nations data, since the outbreak of the Gaza War triggered by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli troops have killed 795 Palestinians in the West Bank.

But while the death toll from the Palestinian Authority's actions has been relatively low, the fact that Palestinians have been fighting each other — even as Israeli forces have been carrying out devastating attacks on Gaza — has prompted widespread soul-searching.

"What happened in Jenin is a black page in Palestinian history," Alsaba said. "It shows the world that we don't see eye to eye, we don't have the same platform, we don't have the same vision."

As the operation dragged on, public pressure grew to end it. Community leaders in Jenin and Ramallah have called on the Palestinian Authority and militants to end the standoff, intensifying their calls following Israeli drone strikes and the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza. On Friday, the parties were working on mediation to end the standoff.

"The situation in Jenin will not defeat the Palestinian Authority militarily. It has more than 30,000 security forces. It has the guns and the money to maintain its control. It has international and regional support," Dalal Shah said.

"The problem for the Palestinian Authority is that even before this operation, it had lost its standing with the public. The situation in Jenin makes it even weaker."

Mapping and data visualization by Aditi Bhandari and Chris Campbell