Israeli Escalation in the West Bank
The Israeli occupation has recently started a wide-scale aggression against several occupied West Bank cities, including Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus and Tubas in addition to the nearby refugee camps, in the biggest Israeli military operation in this area since 2002.
The operation, which was carried out under the pretext of chasing up resistance fighters described by the Israeli occupation as “terrorists”, has so far resulted in the martyrdom of 21 Palestinians, the injury of dozens, the displacement of thousands and massive destruction of the infrastructure.
By doing so, the Israeli occupation has deepened and expanded the war that had stuck it in Gaza and Lebanon to an addition front.
On August 28th the Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz revealed new Israeli intention behind the escalation in the West Bank by calling for the evacuation of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank as what happened in Gaza Strip.
“The West Bank must be treated like Gaza and the evacuation of Palestinians must be carried out. This is a war in every sense”, Katz said in a post on X.
This military operation comes within the framework of the Israeli genocidal war that aims at eliminating the Palestinian presence in historical Palestine. It is part of the Israeli plan to perpetuate the settlement expansion scheme and impose facts on the ground that prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and create an unacceptable environment that leads to the displacement of the Palestinians in preparation to annex the West Bank and Jordan valley to the Israeli entity.
Behind this Israeli escalation in the West Bank also hides Israeli fears that resistance may expand to all areas of the West Bank which may lead to the eruption of a comprehensive Palestinian uprising that would exacerbate the Israeli crisis as regards the conflict with the Palestinians, so it sought to preempt this matter with a military operation.
The Israeli policies have shown intransigent refusal to reach any political solution that ends the war, and the invasion of the West Bank exposes the hysterical state of the Israeli leaders who insist on striking the steadfast will of the Palestinian people in implementation of the so-called “decisive plan” that the Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich has been calling for since 2017. The plan aims at consolidating the settlement expansion project and displacing the Palestinians, which practically paves the way for what is called the “alternative homeland” in Jordan, an idea that is completely rejected by all the Palestinians.
In the light of the continuity of escalation in the West Bank, there are fears that the next stage of aggression is expected to affect the Palestinians in the lands occupied in 1948.
Hamda Mustafa