Tensions are still running high in the #Balata refugee camp in Nablus/the #West_Bank after the killing of local militia leader and Fatah affiliate Hatim Abu Rizq (35) on Saturday, at the hands of the Palestinian National Security Forces (NSF). (Thread/1)

Sources within the NSF claim Abu Rizq was killed when a grenade, which he allegedly was attempting to throw at security personnel, exploded in his hands. The #Fatah opposition claims that he was assassinated at gunpoint for political reasons. (2)

The Balata camp has lived on its nerves after the Fatah branch in #Nablus held internal elections in February, in which member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Jamal al-Tirawi, lost significant ground, causing outrage among his affiliates. (3)

Following the defeat, al-Tirawi’s local strongmen in the camp, among them Abu Rizq, held an armed demonstration, while firing at the local Fatah office. Abu Rizq was withheld by the NFS before and after the elections.(4) https://safa.news/post/277042/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A3%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85-%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%AD-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%AD%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AA%D9%86%D9%81%D8%B0%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%B5-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%B6%D9%8A%D9%86

Both al-Tirawi and Abu Rizq are said to have close connections with the deposed UAE-based Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan, who is an archrival of the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas. (5)

Although the Palestinian Constitutional Court decided to revoke the parliamentary immunity of Dahlan in 2017, presumably in an attempt to end his candidacy for the presidency of the PA, he remains a strong card in the refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon. (6)

Certain Palestinian leaders view the refugee camps to be important in terms of controlling/curtailing/reaching out to the (militant) grassroots of the Fatah faction. (7)

In Balata, Dahlan’s allies are locked in conflict with Fatah forces close to head of the NSF, Nidal Abu Dukhan, on the one hand, and head of the General Intelligence Service, Majid Faraj, on the other. All of the above are said to have their eyes on the presidency of the PA. (8)

These power plays create a dynamic in which local militants with no tangible political projects assert themselves as crucial intermediaries. Youth fed up with the NFS’s security raids against the camp—which are coordinated with the IDF—tend to idolize these militants as heroes (9

Yesterday, confrontations persisted between enraged youth and members of the NSF. Repressed by the Israeli #occupation and living in abject poverty, it is striking to see the degree in which inhabitants of the refugee camps also suffer at the hands of intra-Fatah conflicts. (10)

For more on these dynamics, see my piece for Jadaliyya from last year, dealing with the rise to prominence of the militant known as “al-Zaʿbour,” as a symbol of resistance among youth. He was a close friend of the late Abu Rizq (and al-Tirawi). https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/40236/The-youth-of-Balata-A-generation-of-hopelessness