The armed resistance operations in the occupied West Bank have witnessed a qualitative development during the recent period, and since the beginning of this week, two Israeli soldiers were killed and 3 others were wounded in two shooting attacks carried out by militants in Jerusalem and Nablus.

According to the statement of the Israeli occupation army, one of its soldiers was killed today, Tuesday, in a shooting near the settlement of Shavei Shomron in Nablus in the northern West Bank, and an armed Palestinian group - calling itself "The Lions' Den" - claimed responsibility for the shooting.

And Saturday, a Palestinian resistance fighter opened fire from a distance of zero at a group of Israeli soldiers at the Shuafat checkpoint near occupied Jerusalem, killing a female soldier and wounding 3 others.

The West Bank is witnessing a remarkable rise in all forms of Palestinian resistance. During the month of September, the occupied West Bank witnessed 833 acts of resistance;

It varied between throwing stones, stabbing or attempting to stab and trample cars, shooting and planting or throwing explosive devices, and led to the killing of an Israeli officer and the injury of 49 others, some of them seriously, according to the Palestinian Information Center "Maaty".

Armed clashes with the occupation forces escalated, with 75 shootings at targets belonging to the occupation, including 30 in Jenin and 28 in Nablus.

According to the "Maati" report, 17 citizens were killed, including resistance fighters in 6 different governorates, 10 of them in Jenin governorate alone, while 359 others were injured.

New groups

However, the most prominent characteristic of the current wave of resistance in the West Bank is the merger of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters with fighters from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah into unified armed groups, the most prominent of these groups are the “Jenin Brigade” in Jenin refugee camp, the “Areen al-Aswad” group, and the “Balata Camp” battalion. in Nablus.

The emergence of these groups constituted a new development in the political scene in the West Bank, which has been absent from armed manifestations since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on June 26, 2007 banning all armed militias and military formations.

Over the years, the PA security forces launched a massive campaign of arrests, targeting hundreds of Palestinian resistance fighters affiliated with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad, in addition to dozens of members of the security services and the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), which dominates the Palestinian Authority.

Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas, says that the groups of the lions' den include the mujahideen from all directions and Palestinian factions, and their goal is to resist the occupation, stressing that the signs of the new intifada in the West Bank exist, and one of its images is the unity of fighting in the field.

Al-Arouri added, “The battle with the enemy can only be resolved through armed resistance and sacrifices, and the forms of resistance are varied and escalating. In 2020, 29 shooting operations were carried out, and in 2021, 191 operations were carried out, and since the beginning of 2022 until the moment, 472 clashes and shootings were carried out, and these numbers It constitutes an obsession with the occupation and its supporters."

Al-Arouri considers the fact that members of the Palestinian Authority joined the resistance and the martyrdom of some of them “indicates the approach of the Fatah movement’s resistance. As for the security coordination leaders who pursue the resistance, they do not represent Fatah,” considering that the Palestinian Authority’s removal of its hand from the resistance fighters will make the days of occupation numbered.

Meanwhile, Palestinian MP Hassan Khreisheh believes that the situation in the West Bank is heading towards an armed uprising, and that the occupation is living in a state of anxiety and confusion as a result of the escalation of resistance operations in response to its crimes.

Khreisheh believes that "the greater the resistance on the ground, the greater the isolation of the influential leaders in the PA from the Palestinian street, especially since the PA is absent from the scene and is still betting on negotiations that will not work."

different challenges

Palestinian researcher Mahmoud Jaraba says that the popular confrontations and armed operations in the West Bank have not stopped since the Battle of Sword of Jerusalem between the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and the Israeli occupation forces in May 2021, so hardly a day passes without a clash between Palestinian activists and the occupation soldiers or settlers in the West Bank.

And Jaraba asserts in a study published by Al Jazeera Center for Studies under the title "The Palestinian Struggle in the West Bank and the Challenge of Security Institutionalization", that the Israeli occupation forces intensified their military activities and re-established the policy of assassinating activists in the heart of the Palestinian cities controlled by the Palestinian Authority, in an attempt to eliminate the escalation of resistance activity. in the bank.

The Palestinian researcher believes that all possibilities are still on the table in the West Bank, especially that the expansion of attacks by the army and settlers against the Palestinians is pushing the trend towards escalation.

Jaraba rules out that the popular protests will turn the current resistance operations into an armed uprising, due to the dismantling of the majority of the military structure of the resistance movements over the past years on the one hand, and because of the security doctrine followed by the Palestinian security services against all forms of militarization of the Intifada, on the other hand.

However, the preponderance of individual military action and its escalation, whether through stabbing and stabbing operations or shooting against Israeli targets, remains in place, according to Jaraba.

The future of resistance

Abdullah Al-Aqrabawi, a researcher in international relations and strategic studies, says that the West Bank is undoubtedly witnessing an increase in the quality and number of resistance action, given the failure of the occupation strategies during 15 years to suppress the Palestinian resistance, and on the contrary, the expansion of settlements and violations of the occupation in Jerusalem have contributed to attracting more Young people to join the resistance.

Al-Aqrabawi indicates in statements to Al-Jazeera Net that new generations of Palestinian youth have entered into a series of resistance operations, and this means that the future of resistance in the West Bank is on an upward path and is not at the gates of control.

He adds that Operation Breaking the Waves, the latest military tactic produced by the occupation to abort the waves of resistance in the West Bank, is now unable to provide a comprehensive solution to the escalation of the resistance action. Determining the type of youth that join the resistance, the areas from which they leave, and the environments that support the resistance.

The researcher stresses that the difficult task of the occupation is that many of the young people who have recently joined the resistance are not on the security monitoring and follow-up lists, and this means that they are outside the Israeli security radar and the Palestinian Authority’s security radar.

Al-Aqrabawi expects that the future of the resistance in the West Bank will witness a significant escalation with the progression of time, because the pillars of this resistance action are based on confronting Israeli aggression and violations, and they continue and escalate in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

It highlights that a large part of the young Palestinian generations are not ideologized by traditional ideologies, but rather are resisting action from national premises and in response to the crimes of the occupation.

Add to that - and talk to Al-Aqrabawi - that the West Bank is witnessing a state of political and security fragility, as the Israeli security services or the security services of the Palestinian Authority are no longer able to control all areas in the West Bank, and there are several outposts outside the control of the Authority and where weapons are widespread and sheltered The resistance groups, which created an incubating environment for the Palestinian resistance.

He asserts that if this situation continues, we will be in front of a combat situation that is superior to the situation in the first and second intifada, and the Israeli settlements and security barriers scattered in the West Bank will become easy targets for the Palestinian resistance.

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The father of the two martyrs, Raad and Abdel Rahman Hazem, during his participation in the commemoration festival for the martyrs of Jenin this evening pic.twitter.com/WP1tGXxpxG

— Shehab News Agency (@ShehabAgency) September 30, 2022

The dilemma of security coordination

As for how the resistance deals with security coordination and prosecutions by the Palestinian Authority's security forces, Al-Aqrabawi says, "Without a doubt, this issue is one of the most important issues pressing the resistance in the West Bank."

Unfortunately, the Palestinian Authority still insists on the option of security coordination and cooperation with the occupation at various levels, starting with providing information to the occupation to carrying out raids to carrying out arrests, the most recent of which was the arrest of the wanted man and the number one wanted by the occupation, Musab Shtayyeh from Nablus.

He continued, "This behavior of the authority is matched by a decision by the resistance not to move the battle into an internal clash and not to use weapons against members of the security services, so the state of security coordination will remain a sword hanging over the necks of the resistance."

However, he points out that the presence of many outposts and areas that are not completely under the authority's control in the West Bank, will contribute to providing protection and an appropriate space for the movement of the resistance fighters easily.

Al-Aqrabawi stresses that the more the state of popular anger escalates in the West Bank, the more difficult it will be for the authorities of the Authority to continue security coordination, which may push the occupation to abandon its services, and consequently it will be in a difficult situation between the people discontented with its behavior and the occupation forces.