Palestinian Authority forces have launched a large scale security crackdown in the Jenin district, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported on Sunday.

“Security services are sending summons to all suspects who possibly partook in the shooting at the house of the late Jenin governor Qaddura Musa, and suspects involved in murder, blackmailing or other assaults,” the commander of Jenin´s security forces, Radi Asida, told Ma´an.

The governor of Jenin died from a heart attack on Wednesday, but officials say the attack was brought on by an attack on his home by gunmen.

The perpetrators of the attack have not been found and security services are working around the clock to bring them in, Asida said.

He added that “there will be detentions all around Jenin,” saying that a number of members of the PA security forces have also been questioned on suspicion of involvement in different illicit activities.

The security campaign also aims to collect illegally possessed weapons in the Jenin district which could pose a threat to public security, he added.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority’s security forces arrested Zakaria Zubeidi, the former commander of the Fatah movement’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin. The reason for the arrest is unclear but may have been part of the same crackdown.

Zubeidi is considered one of the most powerful men in Jenin, and recently there has been friction between him and the PA. The Fatah’s Secretary General in Jenin, Atta Abu Ramila, has also turned himself to PA security forces.

It was the second time in several months that Zubeidi has been arrested by the PA. In December, he turned himself in to the PA after claiming that Israel had canceled the pardon it had given him three years earlier and instructed him to hand himself in.

His status as a wanted criminal was cancelled a week after he turned himself in. (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 05/07/12)