On Monday morning, for the first time since the early 2000’s, Israeli occupation forces used a helicopter missile strike against Palestinians in the West Bank. As the Israeli army raided the city of Jenin, they encountered an ambush that led to the injuring of 7 soldiers and later the murder of 6 Palestinians. The incident kicked off a new upsurge in escalatory violence, during which Israeli settlers have called for a wide-scale military operation inside the northern occupied West Bank.
Last week a drive-by shooting against Israeli occupying forces, injuring five, caused illegal settler outrage in the northern West Bank. Israeli settlers began to complain that they no longer feel safe in their heavily guarded illegal settlements — built on land belonging to Palestinians — in the Jenin area where the shooting attack took place. A number of threats then emerged from the Israeli military, regarding the potential for another military operation that would replicate “Operation Defensive Shield” of 2002. Israel’s military operation resulted in the killing of over 500 Palestinians and was primarily focused on targeting armed groups in the north of the West Bank.
This Monday’s Israeli raid on Jenin started as what has become a regular occurrence in the city. Israeli forces raided, attempting to either arrest or assassinate a group of Palestinians. These types of raids regularly result in civilian casualties on the Palestinian side, with children even qualifying as targets for Israeli sniper bullets. However, when Israeli armored vehicles entered Jenin on Monday morning, they drove right into an ambush. Palestinian fighters, belonging to the Jenin Brigades armed group, had set up homemade explosives on the road that the Israeli vehicles were traveling on, detonating one of them right underneath at least three vehicles.
The ambush was significant due to the usage of explosives that the Israeli military were not aware of, and hence did not plan for. When the jeeps were targeted and left stranded, gunmen from the Jenin brigades opened fire on the military vehicles, which triggered a massive invasion of Jenin and the use of Apache helicopters. One of the helicopters fired a missile towards Palestinian fighters, which the Jenin Brigades claimed they survived “by the grace of God” and Israel claimed had only been aimed to scare them. Despite the Israeli army having admitted to the injuring of 7 of their soldiers, the Jenin Brigades released a statement that claimed this had been a cover up and that a number of soldiers had in fact been killed.
In total, 6 Palestinians were killed and around 91 were injured during the invasion of Jenin and a further seven military vehicles were damaged by explosive charges. Two of the Palestinians killed in Jenin were active gunmen, the rest were civilians, including a teenager. Israeli occupying forces opened fire towards the Ibn Sina hospital, ambulances, and even shot a journalist in the stomach. One of Israel’s helicopter gunships was also temporarily put out of service after it was hit with heavy bullets from Palestinian fighters on the ground. Later that day, another Palestinian was shot dead in Bethlehem during protests against the killings committed by Israeli forces in Jenin.
What emerged from Monday’s events was a clear sign that the armed groups inside the West Bank are growing in terms of professionalism and have managed to upgrade their previously ineffective improvised explosive devices. Despite the high death toll, Palestinians in Jenin considered the events to have represented a victory, due to the armed groups’ success in repelling a raid and inflicted casualties on the occupying forces.
The following day, on Tuesday morning, two Palestinians launched a seemingly well-planned attack at the entrance area to the illegal settlement of Eli. The settlement is located on the route between the two major West Bank cities of Nablus and Ramallah. The two gunmen exited a car and began opening fire towards illegal settlers, killing four of them and injuring an additional four, before one of the Palestinian shooters was killed and the other fled in a settler’s car. Later that day the second shooter was murdered in the street, near the city of Tubas.
The shooting operation caused outrage from the other illegal settler communities, who quickly went to protest and later burnt down homes in Palestinian villages like Labn Sharqia and Hawara. Israeli settler fanatics carried out pogroms against Palestinian communities who had nothing to do with the earlier shooting attack, in one case settlers used a car to run a Palestinian child off of his bike and proceeded to beat him. In other cases settlers opened fire indiscriminately at Palestinians and attempted to burn down homes while families were still inside.
Israel’s government called a special security meeting in the wake of the West Bank shooting, with the Hebrew media reporting that despite a military operation being on the table as an option, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, decided against it at this time. It appears as if the Israeli government is in a difficult position, knowing the consequences of a full-scale military operation against the northern West Bank, allowing instead for the illegal settlers to take what they see as revenge instead of the army. This tactic is not stated overtly by the Israeli government or army, but the military’s actions show that this is in fact what happened.
If the Israeli government did not want its West Bank settler fanatics to attack Palestinians, they would need only give the order to their soldiers to prevent the settlers from traveling towards Palestinian villages. Instead, Israeli occupying soldiers aid the settlers by giving them a secured perimeter to operate within and open fire on any Palestinians who attempt to get close to the settlers. Anticipating such attacks, the Palestinian Authority (PA) based in Ramallah called on the United States and UN to intervene in order to prevent Israel from allowing things to escalate.
Although Israel may not seek to implement a full-scale military operation immediately, it is very likely that such a war inside the West Bank will happen soon. The Israeli government can see that the Palestinian armed groups are growing in strength and that in the event they get their hands on more complex military equipment, they could pose a significant threat to Israel’s illegal settler communities. It therefore seems that it is becoming increasingly likely that Israeli PM Netanyahu will opt to increase the severity of his military raids and may even launch a war in the near future.
