For the past three days, Israeli forces have been conducting extensive military operations across the West Bank, which have included mass arrests and targeted killings. While the campaign in the West Bank was intended as a show of resolve, it also highlighted how depleted Israeli forces are and how far they are from achieving the primary war objective of destroying Hamas politically and militarily, the Guardian reports.
At the same time, Palestinian disdain for the Palestinian Authority, which many say is either incompetent or cooperating with the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is growing in the West Bank.
The Palestinian National Authority is a government body run by Fatah, which exercises partial civilian control over areas of the West Bank as a result of the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords.
After more than 10 months of bombing Gaza, which caused massive civilian casualties, Hamas continues to function as a guerrilla force in the territory, and its popularity, as well as the appeal of armed action in general, is growing across the West Bank.
"This is not the end of the resistance. This is just the beginning and it will involve the whole region," warned Abu Asad, who spoke to the Guardian in the Kalandija refugee camp.
He angrily described what he saw as a betrayal of the Western world, but also of the Palestinian Authority, which he accused of "giving the green light" to the Israeli army to eliminate its more radical rivals that it could not neutralize on its own.
"Everything was completely coordinated between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. They tried many times to catch them and failed, so they said: 'Come, mow the grass for us, and we will take care of the rest,'" Assad said of the murders. of Hamas' local commanders in the West Bank in the previous days.
The US peace plan for Gaza envisages that the coastal strip will be administered again by the Palestinian Authority, but in a "revitalized" form. But Assad's disdain for the Palestinian Authority was universal on Friday afternoon in the narrow, busy streets of the Qalandiya refugee camp, established in 1949 for Palestinians displaced by war, the Guardian reports.
The light restrictions on Israeli settlers were lifted after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the start of the Gaza war. Since then, they have launched murderous attacks on Palestinian communities in the West Bank with almost no impunity.
According to the UN, there have been 7 settler attacks on Palestinians since October 1.270, of which 120 "resulted in Palestinian casualties and injuries." In total, 600 Palestinians have been killed by the army and settlers since the start of the Gaza war, while the administration's police forces have been unprepared and powerless to protect the population.
This is why in the West Bank militants with guns are more inspiring than the pervasive feeling of powerlessness.
A member of the younger generation of Kalandija camp residents, a 25-year-old fruit and vegetable seller named Marvan, said the resistance was more of an idea than a military reality.
"We talk about resistance, but we are an unarmed nation. We don't have the basic means of resistance. However, Israel treats us as if we are an enemy nation with a huge army," said Marvan.
One of those buying vegetables was a veteran of the Palestinian movement, Ahmed Ghuneim, the local leader of the dominant Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
He said that the consequence of repeated attacks on a largely unarmed population would eventually be a mass uprising, a third intifada.
"We are facing a very critical situation. I think the uprising is at the door in the West Bank. We are civilians without any possibility to face the heavy Israeli military machine. And the only way we can resist is through the strength and capabilities of the people," he concluded. is he.
According to Israeli leaders, the campaign in the West Bank is designed to prevent attacks on Israelis after this month's bombing in Tel Aviv, the first of its kind in eight years. At least 19 Palestinians have been killed since operations began early Wednesday morning, with Hamas saying 10 of its fighters were killed.
On Friday, local Hamas commander Wasem Kazem was killed on the outskirts of Jenin, along with two other alleged Hamas members, when their car was hit by a drone strike.
Early Wednesday morning, another militant leader, Muhammad Jaber, better known as Abu Shuja, was killed in a shooting at a mosque in the town of Tulkarm, where four other Palestinian fighters were killed.
Abu Shuja was characterized in the Kalandija camp as a fallen national hero. "Everyone respects him, like all the fighters, because they defend the rights of the people," said Abu Suhaib, a 58-year-old resident of the camp, as he left the mosque after midday prayers.
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