The Palestinian resistance groups, who have turned the West Bank into an unsafe place for the Israelis in recent months, are inflicting heavy casualties on the Israeli military by increasing suicide attacks, also called 'martyrdom operations.'
In the latest development, at Shuafat check point in Al-Quds, a Palestinian opened fire on the Israeli forces, killing one and injuring two.Fatah Movement's military wing Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. Immediately after the attack, Israeli forces cordoned off the area. Hebrew resources reported that Shuafat attacker was a 22-year-old Palestinian man.
The Israeli army has so far detained more than 30 Palestinians in the occupied Al-Quds, especially the Shuafat neighborhood. In the clashes, the young Palestinian attacker was also wounded and is being treated in one of the hospitals in Al-Quds. Israeli soldiers closed all the entrances and exits of Shuafat and prevented the movement of Palestinians in this area.
The Palestinian armed raids in the West Bank, which have become a routine, have grabbed he calm from Tel Aviv leaders in recent months. In the past months, the Israelis have carried out extensive operations in the West Bank and Al-Quds to decimate the Palestinians' power to carry out attacks, but these actions have backfired and more Palestinians have embraced armed attacks. Just in the last three months, two resistance groups have announced their existence in the West Bank and Al-Quds, and this issue has fomented panic in the occupied territories.
Until now, the Palestinians had stones and slingshots as their weapons against the Israeli occupiers in the West Bank, but these days they have taken up firearms in order to turn the tide in their favor. The residents of the West Bank, inspired by the experience of Gaza's victories against the Israeli enemy, have come to believe that the only way to fight the occupation and liberate the occupied territories is armed struggle.
The conditions of these days in the occupied territories, especially in the West Bank, are very special, and the Palestinian fighters respond to the countless Israeli crimes by any means, and this has created special conditions for the occupiers. Until recently, the Israelis were only engaged in fighting the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but now the West Bank is emerging as a new flash point as the Palestinian youths in this region are taking up arms.
Although the Israeli regime is trying to contain the security situation in the West Bank, the tensions between the Palestinians and the occupiers are intensifying day by day, to the extent that the Israeli and American officials are warning about the beginning of a new intifada. The West Bank has reached a boiling point in the past few months and is practically witnessing a new Palestinian intifada, which this time is different from its predecessors, and with new armed groups joining the anti-occupation struggle, the Israeli leaders are unable to provide security for the settlers. Also, Israeli security officials have expressed their deep concern about this issue in recent weeks. Given the emergence of armed resistance groups in the West Bank, dimensions of a possible war will not be limited to the West Bank, and the Gaza resistance will also support the fellow Palestinians. This means that the occupied territories will be targeted from two fronts, something posing a brand new threat to the Israeli leaders.
Resistance groups back attacks
Always welcoming any anti-occupation operations, Gaza-based groups this time, too, strongly backed the Shuafat operation.
Islamic Jihad Movement in a statement stressed that this attack took place at the right time and place "in response to the crimes of the [Israeli] occupation crimes. This operation crushed the security, military, and political system of the occupying regime".
Also, Hamas movement emphasized in a statement that the brave shooting operation in Shuafat was a "natural response" to the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians and Al-Aqsa Mosque. The movement congratulated the operation and vowed that crimes in Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jenin, Ramallah, and Qalqilya will never go unanswered.
Moreover, Al-Ahrar movement maintained that the operation was an inevitable response to the Israeli crimes and desecration of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque.
"We have a new operation ahead that will show the strong will of the nation and brave fighters," its statement read.
Al-Ahrar further said this operation showed that the resistance continues and will not stop and will continuously hit the security apparatus of the Israeli regime. This movement also invited "all free people in Al-Quds and the West Bank to fight against the Zionist regime."
The leaders of the Gaza resistance have repeatedly announced that if the residents of the West Bank and Al-Quds start an armed struggle against the occupation, they will support them "with all our might." The Operation Sword of Al-Quds in May 2021, for example, was launched by Hamas in response to the rife crimes of the Israeli forces in Al-Quds.
While with shooting by a Palestinian young man thousands of Israelis are put on high alert, in case of broadened operations, Tel Aviv will have tough times and its leaders will sink in a state of confusion. It was driven by prediction of such situation that the government recently told the settlers to carry arms for defense against possible Palestinian attacks. Analysts read these measures as a sign of the Israeli incapability of dealing with Palestinian operations.
Palestinian Authority distancing from Israel
In addition to the burgeoning of resistance groups in West Bank and an upturn in the individual attacks, the recent stances of the Palestinian Authority (PA) have proven costly to the Israelis. The PA, which has had intelligence and security cooperation with the Israelis for three decades and has always cooperated with Tel Aviv to control the situation in the West Bank, these days has changed its policy and its leaders talk about plans to end cooperation with the occupation.
The PA seems to have concluded that cooperation with the Israelis not only yielded no fruits, but also three decades of services to Tel Aviv distanced it from the Palestinian nation. Actually, the West Bank Palestinians have lost their trust in the PA and its leaders, and breaking with it, they have taken the path of armed struggle for liberation of their land. This shift of the PA position heralds even more difficult days for the Israeli control of the West Bank and Al-Quds.
Intensified Israeli crimes in the West Bank and consequent
increase in Palestinian attacks presage an all-out confrontation in the
near future with its outcomes unpleasant to the Israeli leaders and the
occupied territories.
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