Days after Palestinian fighters pushed back against an Israeli military invasion of the Jenin area, many of those same fighters were arrested by the Palestinian Authority.

The Jenin Brigade, one of the main Palestinian Resistance groups that confronted the recent Israeli invasion of Jenin, said Monday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has backed down from an earlier commitment to release its fighters.

According to a statement, the Jenin Brigade, which is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad in Palestine movement, said that its leadership agreed with the PA officials to release its fighters following the visit of PA President Mahamoud Abbas to the refugee camp.

However, the statement continued:

“As a goodwill gesture, the PA handed over the fighters’ arms before the start of Abbas’ visit, but until now, the fighters have not been released.”

The Brigade said that its representatives along with representatives from Al-Aqsa Brigades – Fatah’s military wing – contacted the PA in order to release the fighters, “but they did not respond to our demands and continued to detain more fighters.”

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The statement said they would start protesting against the PA and in support of “our fighters who are being kidnapped by the PA because they fought the (illegal Israeli military) occupation.”

On Monday evening, hundreds of people and scores of members of the Jenin Brigade were joined by resistance fighters from other groups during a march from the refugee camp of Jenin, calling for the PA to release fighters.

(MEMO, PC)