Abbas bids to reassert control with rare Jenin visit

Palestinian Presi­dent, Mahmoud Abbas, has paid his first visit in over a decade to Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

It comes a week after a mas­sive Israeli military assault on the city’s refugee camp.

The visit was a bid to reas­sert control by the Palestinian Authority (PA) leader amid the worst security and political crisis in the territory in two decades.

He pledged to rebuild the camp, which he called “an icon of struggle”.

At the camp gates, where flags of the Palestinian mili­tant group, Islamic Jihad, flew next to those of the interna­tionally recognised PA, Mr Abbas arrived amid chaotic scenes.

He had flown to Jenin in a Jordanian military helicopter from his headquarters, 100km (62 miles) to the south in the city of Ramallah.

There was a huge armed de­ployment. PA security forces joined a thousand-strong unit of Mr Abbas’ elite presidential guard to clear a path for the 87-year-old to enter the camp, parts of which remain dev­astated from Israel’s air and ground assault. —BBC

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