- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia.
In brief
The security services of the Palestinian Authority, organised by law since 2005 in three forces — national security, internal security and general intelligence — under the President as commander-in-chief. They operate in the parts of the West Bank the Authority administers and have not operated in Gaza since 2007.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. 5 subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination confirmed
- Sources
- 6 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
- Broad area of activity
- The areas of the West Bank administered by the Palestinian Authority; not Gaza since 2007. No deployment or location is represented.
- Notable history
- The Palestinian Authority's many security services of the 1990s were consolidated in 2004–05, and the Law of Service in the Palestinian Security Forces No. 8 of 2005 fixed the result: three forces — the National Security Forces (with the Palestine National Liberation Army), the Internal Security Forces, and General Intelligence — with the President as Supreme Commander; a separate law of the same year (No. 17 of 2005) makes General Intelligence a regular security agency subordinate to the President. In practice the Interior Ministry administers the internal security services, among them the Civil Police and Preventive Security, while the National Security Forces, the Presidential Guard and General Intelligence answer to the President. The services lost Gaza when Hamas took control in June 2007 and have not operated there since. In December 2024 they launched an operation they called Protect the Homeland against armed groups in Jenin camp — the most sustained PA security operation in years — which was overtaken in January 2025 when Israel began its Iron Wall operation in the northern West Bank; no source Vigil holds records a negotiated end to the PA operation.
- Strengths
- A legal frame, a single commander-in-chief, and an established presence in the West Bank's Palestinian-administered areas. No strength figure is carried.
- Limitations
- The services operate in a fraction of the West Bank and not at all in Gaza; their legitimacy among Palestinians has been contested, and the Jenin operation drew armed opposition from the camp's groups. Their relationship with Israeli security forces — long described as security coordination, and repeatedly declared suspended by the Palestinian leadership over the years — is NOT asserted here as current in either direction: Vigil holds no independent 2026 evidence of its present state. The law describes the structure; how far practice follows it is a separate question.
Subordinate formations
Rows are layout only — position and order carry no hierarchy, importance, sequence or strength. Every record shown is an immediate subordinate of the selected organisation.
Lineage & institutional history
Formal parent institution: Palestinian Authority (the President is Commander-in-Chief, Basic Law art. 39, and Supreme Commander of the Security Forces under Law No. 8 of 2005).
Campaigns
Campaigns naming this organisation as a participant. The campaign record owns the relationship and grades it; this list is computed.
- The northern West Bank camps campaign Reported participant · Since 28 August 2024 · moderate confidence · as of 2025-01
Ran its own operation, "Protect the Homeland", in Jenin camp from 5 December 2024 to January 2025, against the same armed groups. It is not part of the Israeli campaign and is recorded here because the two operations followed directly one after the other in the same place. OHCHR records that it killed nine residents and six members of the PA security forces.
Quick actions
System access
Where this record connects into the rest of Vigil. Each row is here because this organisation actually reaches it.
Assessed as of — 2026-10 Last reviewed — 2026-10-12
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