Palestinian Authority blames Washington for Israel's West Bank counter-terrorism operations

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas blamed the U.S. Biden administration on Tuesday for the Jewish state’s increase in counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank. Failing to mention the widespread anti-Israel terrorism emanating from PA-held territory, Abbas accused Israel of “killings and incursions into Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps.”

The Abbas regime in Ramallah demanded “immediate U.S. intervention to stop the Israeli aggression," warning that “the situation is on the verge of exploding" and will have “very dangerous repercussions for everyone.”

In early July, the Israel Defense Forces concluded Operation Home and Garden, Israel’s largest counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank terror hub Jenin in two decades. The intense fighting claimed the lives of at least 12 armed terrorists and one IDF soldier.

Jenin’s status as a leading local terror hub is to a large degree linked to the PA’s limited control in the area. 

Secondly, the growing West Bank violence is linked to a wider power struggle between Abbas’ Fatah party and its main rival, the Islamist Hamas terror group that currently controls the Gaza Strip.

While Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups support local West Bank terror against Israelis, it is also meant to undermine the PA’s control in the Arab-populated areas of Judea and Samaria, known internationally as the West Bank.

Thirdly, the Iranian ayatollah regime is increasingly supporting anti-Israel terrorism in the West Bank as a complement to its already vast terror network that stretches from the pro-Iranian Houthi militia in Yemen to the Iranian-backed terror proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In late June, a PA official warned that the Iranian regime’s influence and presence had already spread across the combustible West Bank region.

“Iran is already here, in the West Bank,” the PA official told the Jerusalem Post news outlet.