PA: Palestinian protestors shoot live at Palestinian security forces

A group of Palestinian youth on Thursday evening shot live fire and locally made bombs at Palestinian security forces near the Al-Faraa refugee camp in the occupied West Bank district of Tubas during a protest against the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s arbitrary detention of Palestinian youth in the refugee camp.

Palestinian security forces told Ma’an that a group of youth closed the main street near the Al-Faraa refugee camp at midnight, prompting security forces to head to the area.

Local sources from the refugee camp told Ma’an that the youth had closed the street in protest of Palestinian security forces continuing to detain youth from the camp without charge or trial.

While security forces attempted to open the closed street, two locally made bombs were thrown at them, prompting Palestinian forces to open fire in the air before chasing after the youth, security sources said.

Live fire was also shot at the security forces when they approached the refugee camp, according to Palestinian security sources.

The PA has come under a wave of criticism in recent months, as Palestinians have accused security forces of arbitrarily detaining and imprisoning Palestinians as part of another escalation of the PA’s “security coordination” with Israel – through what critics have called a “revolving door policy” of funnelling Palestinians from PA jails into Israeli prisons.

In September, protests erupted against the PA as six Palestinian activists held in PA prison without charge or trial for five months launched a hunger strike to demand their release. The six also reported being tortured by the PA during their detentions.

Sahar Francis, director of the prisoners’ rights group Addameer, told Ma’an in September that Palestinian law allows the detention of anyone for up to six months without charge or trial for the purpose of interrogation, adding that “usually [the PA] uses this in cases of political prisoners to avoid charging them.”

The six were released after going on hunger strike for nine days. However, friends and families of the former detainees expressed fear over the possibilities of Israeli forces detaining the activists again.

Palestinian prisoner solidarity network Samidoun said during their detention in PA prison that the six young men were all “well known in their communities and families for their commitment to Palestinian freedom. Their arrest, torture, and continued imprisonment clearly comes under the auspices of Palestinian Authority security coordination with Israel.”