Palestinian fighters threatened to shoot members of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) security services on Friday after forces allegedly tried to arrest a senior militant from a hospital in the occupied West Bank.
The Jenin Battalion, affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad's armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades, made the threat after the alleged attempt to raid Tulkarm's Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital to arrest Mohammed Jaber.
Both Fatah, the faction that dominates the Palestinian Authority, and the local governor said security forces entered the hospital for other reasons. Fatah said forces sought to protect Jaber after reports of Israeli special forces in the city.
Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, commands the Tulkarm Battalion affiliated with the Al-Quds Brigades.
Jenin Battalion
The Jenin Battalion said in a statement: "We direct our message to personnel of the security services.
"We declare before God and all people that they, like the enemy [Israel], only understand the language of bullets and force.
"If anyone attacks us, we will attack them in kind. And those who abuse or shed the blood of the mujahideen [fighters] and the mothers of the martyrs will meet our response accordingly."
The Jenin Battalion said "masked and heavily armed" members of the security forces "appeared before us" to "besiege and storm one of the hospitals in Tulkarm, attempting to arrest the commander and man pursued by the occupation [Israel] Abu Shujaa Al-Jaber after he was injured".
The group said security forces had done this before in the city of Jenin, trying to "arrest and abduct" members of the Jenin Battalion from a hospital there.
"They also assaulted the mothers of the martyrs who went to protect their sons, and they had done the same previously with the mothers of the martyrs of the Jenin Battalion who were visiting the city of Tulkarm," the group added.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a statement that "before the ink has dried on the reconciliation agreements signed at the Beijing conference" the PA's security services "have proceeded to surround" Abu Shujaa.
Hamas announced on Tuesday it had signed an agreement in Beijing with other Palestinian organisations including rivals Fatah to work together for "national unity", with China describing it as a deal to rule Gaza together once the war ends.
Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 39,258 people, according to the coastal enclave's health ministry.
Contradictory statements
Fatah and the governor of Tulkarm issued two contradictory statements about what happened at Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital but agreed on defending the security services.
Governor Mustafa Taqatqa said Palestinian security stormed the hospital to prevent it from being raided by armed individuals, while the Fatah movement in Tulkarm said the forces entered to protect Abu Shujaa after reports of Israeli special forces in the city.
Taqatqa said an injured person arrived injured at the medical facility and that security went to investigate as normal.
After they arrived, according to the governor, they were shot at and a group of people then tried to storm the hospital and the security forces handled them to maintain the hospital's security and the safety of the patients.
The forces withdrew without making any arrests to preserve Palestinian blood and protect civil peace.
Fatah in Tulkarm said in its statement that it intervened in cooperation with Taqatqa to maintain internal unity and the security establishment's desire to protect national resources and institutions.
The movement said security forces were present because of information that Israel planned to raid the hospital to arrest an injured person.
All media outlets reported the presence of Israeli forces at the entrances to Tulkarm, Fatah said, prompting many young people to gather at the hospital based on inflammatory rumours about the security establishment.
This forced the security services to intervene to prevent killings in the hospital and protect those inside.
At the same time as the events at the Tulkarm hospital, fighters targeted the Palestinian security forces' local headquarters with gunfire.
This ended when Abu Shujaa and the Palestinian security forces withdrew.
Agencies contributed to this report.