Military and strategic expert, Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi, said that the extensive operation carried out by the Israeli army in the West Bank is a translation of the plan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which he spoke about in his book “A Place Under the Sun.”
Which, according to Netanyahu, can be summed up as follows: “The pure Jewish state” must be in the Palestinian territories from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and the Palestinian minority remaining in this land must accept living under Israeli sovereignty or leave to another place.
Al-Duwairi considered that the operation is also a literal translation of what the commander of the Central Military Region of the Israeli army, Avi Blot, proposed weeks ago, when he called for an operational maneuver in the northern West Bank similar to what happened in the Gaza Strip.
But the military expert pointed out the difference in circumstances between the two regions, as Gaza remained without an Israeli occupation presence for more than two decades, which allowed it to build a solid base for resistance.
West Bank support for the resistance
He explained that the occupation focused its operations in the West Bank on three camps as centers of resistance presence, pointing out that there is a declared aspect to the operation represented in destroying the infrastructure of the resistance, and an undeclared aspect represented in implementing a secret plan by the far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to strengthen Israeli control over the occupied West Bank and abort any attempt to make it part of the Palestinian state.
Regarding the extent of the West Bank residents’ support for the resistance, Al-Duwairi acknowledged the difficulty of conducting a poll to confirm this, but he believes that more than 80% of the West Bank residents, from Jenin and Tulkarm in the north to Hebron in the south, constitute a strong social incubator for the resistance.
Al-Duwairi pointed out the difficulty of resistance work in the West Bank, explaining that the occupation forces are the first obstacle to resistance work, followed by the control of the Palestinian Authority, which has more than 75,000 police and security personnel throughout the West Bank.
Regarding the developments in the operations in the Gaza Strip, Al-Duwairi said that the occupation announced entering the third phase of operations in all areas except Rafah, which is still in the first phase. He explained that the occupation is carrying out raids “framed in time and place” in the areas of Khan Yunis, Deir al-Balah, the outskirts of the camps, and Gaza City.