Israeli military launched the largest and deadliest attack in the West Bank this year on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people, including a high-ranking militia commander, over several days. Violence in the West Bank – perpetrated by military, Israeli settlers, and Palestinian fighters – has been escalating steadily over the past 10 months.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, at least 660 Palestinians and 15 Israelis have been killed in the West Bank, according to the United Nations. It is a lower number than the over 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza in the past 10 months, but still a reminder of the intensity of the ongoing violence in the West Bank.
The Israeli army has carried out several raids in Palestinian refugee camps since the start of the Gaza war. The latest operation began on Wednesday morning: Air and ground forces attacked Tulkarm in the northwest, Jenin on the territory’s northern border, and the Far’a refugee camp in the east. The Shin Bet, an Israeli security service affiliated with the country’s intelligence groups, and the Israel Border Police were also involved in the attacks, ostensibly targeting what Israeli authorities called “terrorist infrastructure.”
Israel claims that Mohamed Jaber – commander of a group affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad – and Hamas commander Wassem Hazem were killed, along with other militants during the operation. Israeli authorities accused Hazem of planning, along with other militia members, attacks in the West Bank. Like Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad helped carry out the October 7 attacks; both groups also claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv earlier this month, injuring an Israeli.
“If we think about it from that kind of tactical perspective, suicide bombers are more likely to come from the West Bank than from Gaza, probably because Gaza is already a war zone,” said Raphael Cohen, director of the RAND Air Force Project’s strategy and doctrine program, adding that Hamas authorities have called for more suicide attacks against Israeli territory. This may be part of what motivated Israel’s recent operation.
There is also a growing number of Palestinians taking up arms in the West Bank in general, partly due to anger and horror at the brutal destruction in Gaza, but also because military attacks and settler violence in the West Bank are becoming increasingly violent and terrifying. Saif Aqel, a young leader of the Fatah political group, told the Washington Post that Jaber was radicalized by repeated Israeli attacks in the West Bank, saying, “The environment in which he lived made him that way.”
As part of their operation this week, Israeli forces blocked and destroyed roads, sealed off hospital entrances, and cut off electricity, water, cell phone, and internet services. Israeli military disputed claims that they blocked access to medical facilities.
Decades of Violence in the West Bank
The West Bank lies east of Israel, bordering Jordan and the western shore of the Dead Sea. Before 1967, Jordan controlled the region; then Israel captured the territory and held it under military occupation until the Oslo Accords of 1993, when it was divided into three “areas,” supposedly under the control of the Palestinian Authority. However, Israeli Jewish settlements in the area have accelerated, and Israeli military has also moved in to protect them. Now, the Palestinian Authority, which is the nominal government, has little real control over the West Bank;
Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West Bank are recognized as occupied territory according to international law, and therefore Israel is obligated to protect the people living there. Israel denies that it is occupying Palestinian lands, but last month, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel is occupying Palestinian lands and must end this occupation immediately.
According to this order, which can be enforced by the UN Security Council, “Israel must withdraw its forces from all parts of the occupied territories, including Gaza Strip, and remove all settlers from the West Bank, including illegally annexed East Jerusalem,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns, in a statement. Israel’s allies on the Security Council, including the United States, have given no indication that they intend to enforce the court’s decision.
This has allowed Israel to continue its war in Gaza and left Palestinians living in the West Bank trapped in a cycle of violence: There have been at least five major Israeli military operations in the West Bank since October 7, and settler violence has also increased;
These settlers are Israelis – usually aligned with the country’s right wing and often heavily armed “to the teeth,” according to Diana Buttu, a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer specializing in international human rights law.
They have increasingly expanded the number of settlements in areas that, according to the United Nations, should be off-limits to Israeli control. Israel refers to them as “illegal” settlements, but does not stop people from building outposts or forcing Palestinians out of their homes and lands. Some settlers have also begun encroaching on cities. Settlements are also often subsidized by the Israeli government, providing them with better infrastructure, roads, water, and schools than the government provides to Palestinian villages.
Some Palestinians have taken up arms against these settlers, and sanctioned Israeli military operations have also encouraged vigilantism and new anti-Israel militant groups. Israel has sent more troops in response, creating what appears to be an inevitable cycle.
“The cities [in the West Bank] should be free from the presence of the army, but the army has carried out these incursions, so these [militant] groups have emerged in response,” said Joost Hiltermann, director of the Middle East program at the International Crisis Group, to Vox. “So, the army responds to these groups, and you will see an escalation.”
The city of Jenin and the refugee camp in its surroundings – two places that were targeted in fighting this week – are frequent targets, as Buttu explained, they and the entire Gaza Strip are the main sites of Palestinian resistance in the occupied territories.
Overall, there are few signs that militants or Israel will change their strategies in the West Bank, leading some countries – especially France and Britain – to fear that the growing violence will turn the West Bank into another Gaza;
Fonte: iNoticias