The entrance to the "Eli" settlement, south of Nablus, where the Thursday commando operation took place (Al Jazeera)

Nablus -

Just two weeks after the Israeli occupation army installed 10 military iron gates that closed the entrances to Palestinian villages and towns south of Nablus in the north of the West Bank, but that did not prevent the implementation of a commando operation in which two settlers were killed near a tourist rest stop at the “Eli” settlement south of the city in an area that has become known as It is the most fortified.

The occupation army had previously taken strict security measures and recently escalated them to restrict the movement of Palestinians and their freedom of movement in the region and most parts of the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.

Yesterday evening, Thursday, the settlement was on the verge of a guerrilla operation carried out by the Palestinian Muhammad Dhiyab Manasra from the Qalandia camp, east of Jerusalem, who traveled dozens of kilometers with his vehicle and weapons amid strict military measures, shooting two settlers and killing them, before being killed by the bullets of the occupation soldiers.

The will of the resistors

The operation took the minds of the Palestinians back 8 months when the two resistance fighters, Muhannad Shehadeh and Khaled Sabah, from the village of Urif, south of Nablus, carried out a commando operation in the same place, killing 4 settlers and wounding 4 others after they attacked a café at the entrance to the settlement.

After last year's operation, the occupation transformed the area extending between the towns of Al-Laban and Turmus Ayya, where the "Eli" settlement is located - inhabited by extremist settlers (extremist hilltop youth groups) - into a military barracks, and closed the entrances to the villages there with stone and dirt barriers and gates, and dug trenches to prevent the passage of Palestinians.

Fortified parking lots were also allocated for the settlers and were heavily guarded by occupation soldiers. The area was provided with advanced electronic surveillance cameras, in addition to military vehicles operating around the clock, with settlers constantly lurking for the Palestinians as they passed by.

Despite this, the Palestinian resistance fighters were able to reach the place and attack Israeli targets. This is due - according to analysts who spoke to Al Jazeera Net - to the great amount of pressure and the escalation of crime practiced by the occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the availability of the will among the resistance fighters - especially the youth - to carry out their operations.

Palestinian military expert Major General Youssef Al-Sharqawi says that the humanitarian crimes committed by the occupation in Gaza against civilians are a recipe to whet the appetite of Palestinian youth in the West Bank to respond to them, and therefore yesterday’s operation is a “natural response” to the crimes of the occupation that require the “circle of blood” to continue forever. end.

Al-Sharqawi believes that the assessment of the position of the Israeli security services is “wrong” and is still based on condescension and arrogance, and that he believes that crimes against civilians will serve as an “awareness-raising” for the Palestinians.

He added that the Palestinians must admit that they are in an unusual race with the occupation regarding who will succeed in “squeezing the consciousness” of the other and who will scream first. He said, “I believe that the Israeli security assessment will prove its failure.”

Military failure

Al-Sharqawi believes that the operation reflects a clear security and military failure of the occupation, and he believes that any security system will not be able to achieve 100% security. The evidence for this is that the region witnessed a similar operation months ago, and that there are exposed targets for the occupation army and its settlers throughout the length and breadth of the occupied West Bank, as it is unthinkable. The operation was not preceded by a reconnaissance operation from the port.

Militarily, the occupation army was unable to provide absolute and permanent protection for the areas and targets in the West Bank, no matter how much it used its force, according to Al-Sharqawi, who said that no matter how much the occupation exaggerated the size of the military fortification and closed the roads to prevent access to the sites, it would not prevent Palestinian youth from working, especially since they see and live the occupation’s violations. directly.

For his part, political analyst and researcher on Palestinian affairs, Aqel Salah, links the resistance operations and what is happening in the West Bank to the aggression against Gaza, where the occupation escalates its security measures, closes the West Bank and cuts its ties with its humiliating military checkpoints, and continues its daily raids into Palestinian cities and villages, and launches campaigns of arrest, killing, and mass demolition. Settlement construction and settler violence have continued at an escalating rate since the war was launched on the Gaza Strip.

All of this - Salah tells Al Jazeera Net - leads to tension in the situation and a new uprising, and pushes Palestinian youth to think about taking revenge on the occupation.

He added that yesterday's operation, Thursday, was characterized by the fact that its perpetrator was a young, trained military man who belonged to the Palestinian security services, which means that matters have reached the point of "real explosion" among all Palestinians.

Despite the military fortification of the place and the occupation’s measures, this - Salah continues - does not prevent any Palestinian who has the will and intention to act in resistance, and he realizes in advance - and as a result of his revolutionary, national and religious conviction - his specific fate of martyrdom, injury or arrest.

The occupation tightened its military measures near the Eli settlement after last year's operation (Al Jazeera)

Indicator

In turn, Ismat Mansour, a specialist in Israeli affairs, agrees with what Al-Sharqawi and Salah said, and confirms that yesterday’s operation is “painful,” especially since it comes at the height of warnings provided by Israeli security about the explosion of the situation in the West Bank, on the eve of the month of Ramadan, on a day in which a terrible massacre occurred in Gaza, and at the height of Negotiations regarding a faltering exchange process.

Mansour told Al Jazeera Net that all of these factors made the operation come at a truly sensitive time, and gave an indication that embodies all the occupation’s fears about the escalation of resistance during the month of Ramadan, and that the West Bank is capable of being surprised and inflicting losses, and that all warnings and security systems are powerless to prevent these operations. If it turns into a phenomenon and a wave, it will be painful.

Since the perpetrator of the operation was a soldier in the Palestinian security, this gives indications that the security services will not also be immune from the possibility of this confrontation developing, and that their members may actually turn to carrying out attacks on settlers, according to Mansour.

He explained that the operation, with its security and political connotations, indicates an escalating situation and a response to the bragging of Israeli security and its extremist minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, such that this type of operation, in the face of the closure and siege of the West Bank, constitutes a major “security dilemma” for Israel.

After the operation took place, the occupation army closed the areas with its military checkpoints, and settlers in various areas of the West Bank - especially south of Nablus - launched attacks against the Palestinians, and built a new settlement outpost on the lands of “Ras Al-Marajat” in the village of Al-Laban, opposite the “Eli” settlement.

Source: Al Jazeera