The Power Struggle Among Palestinian Groups in the West Bank
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You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Monday, January 13th. I'm Greg Dixon. As negotiators try to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza, there's more fighting in another Palestinian territory, the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

But the fighting there isn't just between Israelis and Palestinians. It's between different Palestinian groups. And that fight includes differing visions for the future of the Palestinian people. NPR's Emily Fang went to the West Bank. And a heads up, you'll hear the sound of gunfire in this story.

NPR producer Nuhar Mousli and I drive on a dusty road towards the Jenin refugee camp. That's the camp. You see it right in front of you. The camp is a warren of multi-story buildings and twisting alleys. And as we approach, we hear the gunshots. It's a firefight between soldiers for the Palestinian Authority, or PA, which governs much of the West Bank, and another faction of Palestinians inside the Jenin camp.

Soon, we hear someone has been killed and taken to the hospital. We enter a waiting room already full of tear-streaked family members and masked PA soldiers, assault rifles strapped to their chests.

One woman is overcome with grief. She tells us the PA fatally shot her husband after he went up to the roof of their home and her son later died.

She begins shouting at the PA soldiers. May you suffer like we are suffering, she says. Then her mother joins in. She yells she would have expected this from the Jews, meaning Israel, but not from fellow Arabs.

The Janine camp houses Palestinian refugees, including those expelled from their homes by Israeli forces. In 2002, the Israeli army briefly occupied the camp after deadly fighting, and it last raided it this past September. And the camp has remained a stronghold for resistance against Israel.

But this time, it is Palestinian forces attacking the camp. It started this past December. Iyad Issa, an intelligence officer with the PA, explains. He says the PA is trying to root out what he calls outlaws hiding inside the Jenin camp. He accused them of trying to undermine the PA by showing it cannot control Jenin city and giving Israel's military a pretext to come in.

Radi Jarai is a former PA minister. He adds the PA also has ambitions of governing Gaza if there is a ceasefire with Israel. But... In order to give you a role in Gaza, you have to settle problems here in the West Bank. So the PA is trying to prove themselves by first eliminating resistance in the Janine camp.

But in trying to stamp them out, the PA risks losing popular support. Gunfire punctuates an imam singing at Friday prayers. I'm now at the mosque abutting the Janine camp with Mohamed Abahara. He's a radiologist at the hospital on the camp's periphery. You hear this every day? I hear this every day from four years. Camp residents say the fighting has destroyed the camp's power and water lines.

And yet, like most, Abahara staunchly supports the Jenin fighters, not the PA. The fighters are mostly young men who have fought and sometimes died fighting Israeli security forces. Now they are refusing to put down their arms against the PA, which Jenin resident Mustafa Gerar accuses of despotism.

He says a few weeks ago, PA soldiers detained him because he was walking without his ID, then beat him. Yeah. You're the son of the mayor. Yeah, I actually never expected it to happen. The deaths resulting from this fight with the PA are dividing Palestinians at a time when many feel unity is needed.

Retired hospital administrator Suleiman Turkman has been trying to mediate a truce. Two groups, they are two brothers. Meaning the PA and Janine camp fighters are on the same side, he says, fighting their common enemy, Israel.

He fears this Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence could spread to other refugee camps, ultimately giving Israel the upper hand in deciding not just to cease fire in Gaza, but also the future of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Emily Fang, NPR News, Janine. That's the state of the world from NPR. For more coverage of all sides of this conflict, go to npr.org slash mid-east updates. Thanks for listening.