Israel’s escalating presence inside the occupied West Bank is leading to even greater violence. Within one day the body of an Israeli soldier was taken hostage, as bomb attacks struck Jerusalem. Tel Aviv now weighs a tough response, but at what cost?
On Tuesday night Israeli occupation forces accompanied a small group of extremist Israeli settlers, who were traveling for a routine storming of Joseph’s tomb, located in the Nablus area of the West Bank. The heavily armed Israeli forces escorted the settlers into Nablus, participating in the unnecessary provocation.
In recent months Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in Nablus have increased rapidly, leading to a response from Palestinian armed groups. The newly formed Lion’s Den group, along with the ‘Nablus Brigades’ and ‘Balata Brigades’, have sworn to confront all settler incursions by force and called upon people to demonstrate against the provocations also. Tuesday’s storming was confronted upon the almost immediate entry of Israeli military vehicles into Nablus, with the armed groups throwing the equivalent of stun grenades and shooting at the vehicles with automatic weapons.
The Israeli military jeeps then drove into areas where demonstrators had gathered and began to open fire on predominantly-teenage crowds hurling stones. A number of Palestinian teens were shot and moderately injured, whilst one was shot in the stomach, considered to be a serious injury. 16 year old, Ahmed Amjad Shehadeh, was not as lucky as the others, however, he was shot directly in heart by an Israeli soldier and died almost instantly.
For four hours on Tuesday, ranging into the early hours of Wednesday morning, Israeli soldiers clashed with armed Palestinian gunmen. Whilst no Palestinian fighters were reported injured or killed, the Lion’s Den group reported direct hits that caused casualties amongst Israeli forces. It is unknown as to how many Israeli soldiers were injured or killed, it is also unlikely that the Israeli military will admit to its casualties, normally opting to distribute its casualties amongst various “accidents” later on in order to conceal losses. The Israeli army’s tactic of covering up its losses has its positives and negatives; whilst it sometimes serves to prevent panic and outrage amongst Israel’s civilian population, it can also prove to be an embarrassment when their enemies manage to film incidents in order to prove them wrong.
Although the city of Nablus went into mourning over yet another murdered teen, hours later news emerged from the city of Jenin, shifting the focus away from Nablus. Armed gunmen from Jenin had kidnapped the body of an Israeli soldier, an event which was announced publicly by the Israeli military. Hebrew media had reported that the Israeli soldier, Tiran Faro, was taken by unidentified Palestinian gunmen who had stormed the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin and seized Faro’s body. Israeli media say that Faro was seriously injured in a car accident and that he wasn’t killed in an exchange of fire. The gunmen, not yet known to be affiliated with any group, demanded the release of Palestinian bodies held by the Israeli military and began negotiations through the Palestinian Authority as its mediator.
Hours later, two separate IED’s exploded at Israeli settler bus stops in Jerusalem, killing 1 and injuring at least 18. This incident led to a meeting between Israeli top security officials, ranging from the military to intelligence, who vow to provide a strategy to tackle unknown perpetrators. The explosions, one of which damaged an Israeli settler bus, caused a state of panic throughout occupied Jerusalem with Israelis claiming to see suspicious devices everywhere, adding to an already anxious mood.
The explosions in Jerusalem brought flashbacks to the days of the Second Intifada, when bomb attacks killed scores of Israelis in much larger explosions. It is still unclear who is behind the attack, yet it has served as a source of great stress to the Israeli security establishment to know that professional home-made explosive devices are able to exist under their noses.
The Nablus based Lion’s Den group released a statement following the explosions in Jerusalem, mourning the death of the teenager killed by Israeli occupation forces in Nablus, then going on to say:
“Is it not time for you to understand the lesson? This morning, to remind them, we say to you, listen and be aware that blood is for blood, killing for killing, and bombing for bombing, and the head is met by heads.”
So far this year, the West Bank has been the center of violence in Palestine, not the Gaza Strip that has been the main focus of the Israeli military’s firepower since 2006. So far this year, roughly 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, making the death toll in the territory the highest since the Second Intifada. Most media outlets are claiming that this year’s death toll in the West Bank is the highest since 2015, however, according to statistics from the United Nations, 138 were killed that year, making 2022’s death toll higher.
Israel’s “Operation Break the Wave”, launched March 31, was designed to de-escalate tensions inside the West Bank. The operation has proven to do the very opposite, only working to escalate tensions further. The message here for Tel Aviv, as the new extremist regime led by Benjamin Netanyahu takes power, is that the more violence Israel dishes out against Palestinians living under occupation, the more Palestinians will retaliate. The problem of a people living under Apartheid conditions and a brutal military regime does not go away by making their conditions even more difficult.
