Haaretz newspaper warned, in a news analysis, that Israel’s involvement in the blood of innocent Palestinians in the West Bank threatens to turn it into a “second Gaza.”
She said that the Israeli media was preoccupied this week with the incident of throwing a mud ball at Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir while he and his family were on the beach in Tel Aviv, while the entire country was drowning in the real mud created by the National Security Minister and his partners, which is represented by the “project to turn the West Bank into Gaza and Gaza into the West Bank.”
The Times of Israel reported that Israeli police arrested a 27-year-old woman for questioning on Friday after she allegedly threw a mud ball at Ben-Gvir while he and his family were on a Tel Aviv beach.
Videos circulating on social media showed Ben Gvir and his family on the beach, surrounded by a group of police officers and security forces, while a beachgoer was seen shouting at him, saying: “You are a murderer.”
two parallel operations
According to Haaretz diplomatic correspondent Noa Landau, in her news analysis, there are two parallel processes that are moving at a faster pace since the Hamas attack on October 7 and its aftermath, and both will produce a dangerous reality.
In the West Bank, the war in Gaza has escalated on almost every level, with the impetus for violence on the Palestinian side growing alongside increased arms smuggling.
Jewish settler violence has become more rampant than ever under the protection of the far-right government, and the Israeli military has begun to deploy troops and equipment in the West Bank in large numbers, according to an analysis by Haaretz diplomatic correspondent Noa Landau.
The analysis explained that the killing of innocent civilians has become widespread to a degree that was unimaginable before the Gaza war became “routine.” Add to that what the newspaper calls “economic repression” imposed on the West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza war and “political contempt” for the Palestinian Authority, even though it “remains Israel’s only partner on the ground in curbing terrorism,” according to the newspaper.
The diplomatic correspondent warns that if this approach continues, it portends a “complete gentrification” of the West Bank and an escalation of violence and daily friction between Palestinians, settlers and the army, and the West Bank will become a “second Gaza.”
Settlers’ plan for Gaza
Haaretz revealed a plan being prepared by the settler movement to establish settlements as deep inside the Gaza Strip as possible. It would start with the construction of synagogues for soldiers, then there would be permanent religious schools run by rabbis, and then all of these facilities would be transformed into population centers, where teenagers would move to live in mobile homes and from which they would be expelled time and again until the settlement outposts in Gaza were legalized.
In a Haaretz report on Friday, Israeli journalist Shani Litman quoted a leader of the settler movement explaining the plan: “At first, they will agree to hold some kind of prayer across the fence, then they will let us stay there a little longer, maybe sleep there all night, say once a week, and in this way, we hope to gradually reach a situation where we actually settle on the other side of the fence” separating Israel from the Gaza Strip.
According to correspondent Lando, there are historical events that shape the future of future generations, warning that unless these trends stop soon, it is very likely that the differences between Gaza and the West Bank will disappear and they will burn and become more “extremist” day by day under the yoke of the occupation and the Israeli military regime. The same will happen to the settlements and outposts, and violent friction between civilians will increase daily.
Landau considered that reaching an agreement on a prisoner exchange and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip may be “our last chance” to avoid a catastrophic scene.
She concluded by recalling the incident in which the Minister of National Security was pelted with a mud ball, saying, “Ben Gvir, who is one of the main culprits of the chaos, doesn’t really want us to talk about all of these (facts) now. He wants to throw sand balls in our eyes until it’s too late.”