Seven Palestinian men were wounded Tuesday afternoon in exchanges of fire between Palestinian Authority security forces and residents of the West Bank town of Qabatiya, near Jenin.
The officers arrived in the city as part of a new PA security plan in the Jenin area. A group of local residents, some of them armed and some affiliated with the Islamic Jihad,
did not approve of the PA's activity in the area and began hurling stones at the security officials, who fired back.
Law Order
Palestinian officers deploy in Jenin / Hanan Greenberg
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One of the residents who sustained critical wounds is reportedly in a state of brain death.
PA officials accused Islamic Jihad members of firing at the Palestinian security officers, but the organizations denied the claims. The residents claimed that that the security forces fired at them massively and indiscriminately. They said that the young man critically wounded was about to get on a bus on his way to his university and was not involved in the clashes.
Israel
recently allowed the PA to deploy hundreds of additional police officers and security officials in the Jenin area. The new forces were ordered to enforce the law and resist any criticism or acts of protest.
PA officials have added that the forces' entry into the area was not aimed at fighting terror organizations, but at combating criminal elements. The PA is also interested in acting against those violating the orders regarding the illegal carrying of weapons.
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