Alongside its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel continues its crackdown on Palestinian terrorist organizations in the West Bank.
“The West Bank is in flames,” said Dr. Ronni Shaked, Middle East and Islam Research Unit coordinator at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. “Every time Israeli forces enter, they encounter explosive devices and live fire.”
Over the weekend, an Israeli border police officer was killed as an explosive device blew up on a military convoy in the West Bank city of Jenin. Also, an Israeli citizen was killed in a shooting attack carried out by Palestinian terrorists in another area in the West Bank.
The war in Gaza that began in October, coupled with Israel’s operations in the West Bank, came after months of already heightened tensions and violence between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the West Bank.
According to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 500 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in the last year by the Israeli military. Around 30 Israelis have been killed in the same period.
The residence of the West Bank
Israel captured the West Bank, which it refers to by the biblical names for its southern and northern regions—Judea and Samaria—during the 1967 Mideast war. It then immediately began populating it with Jewish settlements. While the international community sees the Israeli civilian presence there as illegal, it is now home to almost half a million Jewish residents. Palestinians see the land as part of their future state and the Jewish presence there as an impediment to their national aspirations.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was established in 1994 as part of the Oslo Accords which were supposed to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Had the accords been fully implemented, their intention was to pave the road to Palestinian statehood. The PA is controlled by the Fatah and led by President Mahmoud Abbas. It has full control of West Bank territory referred to as Area A and partial civil control over Areas B and C, in which Israel maintains most of the control. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, after overtaking it violently from the Fatah in 2007, two years after Israel evacuated the territory from its military and civilian presence.
Israel maintains that its military operations in the West Bank are needed to thwart attacks both against settlers in the West Bank and within Israeli territory. The rise in the number of raids in recent months comes alongside a gradual weakness of the PA.
“The events are deteriorating,” said Professor Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies. “But, as opposed to Gaza, where Hamas is the single governmental, sovereign actor that controls the whole territory and can coerce the civilian population to cooperate, this is not the situation in the West Bank. Despite widespread support for Hamas, this is not translated into action, and we do not see the masses joining.”
Israel and the PA regularly cooperate on security matters. The cooperation is not only fruitful for Israel but also helps Abbas maintain his hold on the territories as his popularity continuously plummets.
Abbas has repeatedly postponed legislative elections in the PA, gnawing at his legitimacy. His fear that Hamas will take over the reins in the West Bank has become more realistic as the terrorist organization only rises in popularity. Abbas is also seen as a collaborator of Israel because of the extensive security operation, an Israel that the majority of Palestinians loath.
A recent poll published by the Palestinian Center for Policy Survey and Research showed overwhelming support amongst Palestinians for Hamas’ surprise offensive against Israel on October 7, which was the opening shot of the war. The attack killed approximately 1,200 Israelis, injuring thousands of others. Over 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas, most of them civilians. Almost half of them have been released already. The terrorist who participated in the attack murdered children and elderly people, raped women, and maimed the bodies of many victims. The poll showed that since the war began, support for Hamas has only risen both in Gaza and in the West Bank.
“The Palestinian public is looking for someone to fight against Israel, not to make peace with it,” Shaked told The Media Line. “With every death in the West Bank, there is more and more support for Hamas.”
The security cooperation between Israel and the PA is believed to be part of the reason why the situation in the West Bank, despite the violence and unrest, has yet to spiral out of control. It is both bad for the PA and good for the PA, a reflection of the complex situation.
“There are several terrorist groups and organizations that operate locally in the West Bank,” Michael told The Media Line. “There is no clear coordination between them and while they are trying to generate terrorist attacks and are accumulating more weapons, Israel is successful in thwarting attacks because of its presence there and its intelligence. In order to continue to do so, it needs to maintain its presence all the time.”
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, almost 23,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israel’s offensive in Gaza that came in response to the attack. UN data shows tens of thousands have been injured and almost 2 million Gaza residents have been internally displaced. The staggering numbers have only contributed to the rise in support for Hamas in the West Bank.
At the beginning of the war, the Israeli leadership outlined its goals. The first was to topple Hamas in Gaza, including ridding it of its military capabilities. The second was to release all the hostages. Even if Israel is successful in its first goal, Hamas’ presence in the West Bank is steadfast and will continue to haunt Israel.
“Hamas is not a Gazan movement, it is a Palestinian movement which is an inseparable part of the Palestinian political map,” said Shaked. “Terminating Hamas is an illusion, a stupidity of the Israeli leadership. Israel can topple buildings and arrest leaders, but Hamas will remain in the hearts of Palestinians.”
The rift between Hamas and Fatah which began in 2007 with the hostile takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas, has since been in place, despite numerous futile efforts to overcome the division. For Israel, especially for right-wing governments, the rift was useful.
“It created justification for lack of progress towards a political settlement because it allowed Israel to assert that the PA does not represent all of the Palestinians and that the PA is not strong enough as it is constantly challenged by Hamas,” said Michael. “The idea was that through this rift, Israel would deter Hamas in Gaza and prevent it from permeating into the West Bank. This idea collapsed on the 7th of October.”
Last week, a senior Hamas commander was killed in an airstrike in Lebanon. Although Israel did not comment, it is believed to be behind the assassination of Saleh Arouri. In the West Bank, various Palestinian armed organizations called for a general strike in mourning.
As part of its efforts against Hamas, Israel has also conducted thousands of arrests in recent months. According to the UN, between 4000 to 5000 West Bank Palestinians have been detained by Israeli security forces since the beginning of the war. A UN flash report on the area was harshly critical of Israel saying there is a “rapid deterioration of the human rights situation,” and that Palestinians “live in constant terror of discriminatory use of Israeli state force and settler violence.”
Since the swearing of Israel’s most right-wing government ever one year ago, there has been an increase in settler violence towards Palestinians. The US administration, which has backed Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza, has been highly critical of this, including the announcement of the imposition of travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in such attacks. The proximity between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank often leads to friction. According to the UN report, eight Palestinians were killed by settlers since the beginning of the war, with hundreds of attacks resulting in property damage or injuries. Israeli officials have condemned the violence.
“These are events that increase the friction and create more motivation for terrorist organizations to attack Israel and negatively affect the PA which is under constant criticism for not operating against them,” Michael explained.
With none of the factors contributing to the tensions expected to disappear, the West Bank will continue to be another source of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.