On December 28, young journalism student Shatha Sabbagh stepped out of her house in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, with her mother and the two young children of her sister. A moment later, she was shot in the head and killed by a sniper’s bullet. She was just 21 years old.

Shatha was killed in the same refugee camp where veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was assassinated by the Israeli regime in 2022. Yet, Shatha was killed not by an Israeli regime soldier. According to her family, the bullet that took her life was fired by the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF).

For the last month, the PASF has laid siege to the Jenin refugee camp, in a coordinated effort with the Israelis, as part of its efforts to crack down on armed resistance in the northern West Bank.

While the Palestinian Authority (PA) managed to subdue resistance to the Israeli occupation in many other urban hubs through threats and oppression, in the north there remain pockets where armed resistance groups are still present. The city of Jenin, and especially its refugee camp, where both Shireen and Shatha were killed, is one such pocket. This is why the camp, which is home to more than 15,000 people, has come to be seen as a symbol of resistance and steadfastness and very much a thorn in the PASF’s side.

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Indeed, the PA’s very existence is reliant on stamping out such resistance to the Israeli regime in all areas under its supposed control. As such, it continuously coordinates its actions with the Israeli army, and utilises tactics of oppression that are often indistinguishable from theirs. In fact, one could easily mistake PASF for the Israeli army, if it weren’t for their different uniforms.

And as the Israelis continue with their genocide in Gaza, the PASF embarked on their very own extensive act of aggression against Jenin. They laid a relentless siege on the refugee camp, cutting off water, electricity and banning the entry of most basic supplies. The PASF also stationed snipers on rooftops and placed checkpoints in the streets, in order to limit the movement of resistance fighters.

There are also reports of beatings, arrests and torture. A team from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society testified to being detained, beaten and interrogated for two and a half days while they were trying to deliver medications to besieged families.

In a video doing the rounds on Palestinian social media two men are being forced to stand on one leg and recite “the President Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] is God” over and over. In another video, members of the PASF are beating a young man senseless apparently for criticising the PA’s siege on Jenin refugee camp. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many are using the word “shabiha” to describe the PASF – a term commonly used for forces and groups that were loyal to Syria’s former dictator Bashar al-Assad.

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Residents of the camp have taken to the streets in protest and have called for the PA to halt its brutal assault, and put an end to bloodshed between kin. But these calls have been ignored. Instead, the PASF is insisting that the resistance fighters either give up their weapons or leave the camp, both of which they have categorically refused to do. How this plays out is yet to be seen, but what is certain is that more Palestinian blood will be spilled before it ends.

For the PA leadership, the operation in Jenin is part of a much larger picture – one that allows it to position itself as the body to take over Gaza after a ceasefire. The logic is that if the PA can prove that it can quell and even eliminate the armed resistance in the West Bank, Israel and the United States will facilitate its installation in Gaza. However, while the Biden administration has indicated that it would support a PA takeover, the Netanyahu government has made no such indication and on the contrary, has categorically stated that it would refuse such a scenario. Nonetheless, the PA leadership continues to play its role as native enforcer in the hope of more scraps from the master’s table.

As if to prove its guilt and pour more salt to the wound, the PA recently announced its decision to suspend Al Jazeera’s operations in the occupied West Bank, as a punishment for its coverage of Jenin. The PA follows in the footsteps of the Israeli government which also banned the media network in May 2024, in direct response to its coverage of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

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Whilst the PA leadership’s treachery and security coordination with the Israeli regime is nothing new, its ongoing siege of Jenin has carried its betrayal of the Palestinian people to a whole new level. Its casual spilling of civilian blood, and the shabiha-style beatings and torture, demonstrate that it is more than willing to cross red lines unlikely to ever be forgotten or forgiven by the Palestinian people. None of this bodes well for the longevity of a leadership already suffering from a crisis of legitimacy for its failure to take a meaningful stand against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.