Nablus- Shortly before midnight, a Palestinian driving a truck approached the Israeli military checkpoint of Awarta near the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank. A short time later – and according to what the occupation claimed – the driver left the lane designated for crossing towards the checkpoint, overtook the vehicles in front of him and ran over two Israeli soldiers, before withdrawing from the vehicle. The location is towards the city of Nablus.
This scene surprised the occupation soldiers who witnessed the event, and the Israeli army leaders and settlers who later visited the place. The Israeli army then announced – according to Haaretz newspaper – that it was an “intentional operation” that resulted in the death of two soldiers who succumbed to their injuries.
The occupation army then launched various raids into the city of Nablus, its villages, and its camps, especially in the area near the site of the operation. It also confiscated the vehicle in which the operation was carried out, and said that the perpetrator surrendered himself to Palestinian security, which in turn did not hand him over to the occupation.
The importance of the Awarta operation lies not only in its time and the mechanism of its implementation, but also in its location. The military checkpoint that was reopened after the seventh of last October is fortified militarily and security-wise with cement and iron barriers, and is equipped with various detection tools, cameras, and other means of protection for the soldiers, as well as Its proximity to Hawara camp.
It drove the occupation crazy
The “Awarta Operation” broke the state of relative calm in the resistance operations experienced by the West Bank cities in general, and the city of Nablus in particular, the most recent of which was at the end of last February, when a Palestinian killed two Israelis near the “Eli” settlement south of Nablus. This operation came against… Israel’s attempts and efforts to tighten its grip on the West Bank.
Despite Israeli secrecy about the details, this did not prevent occupation leaders and settlers, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, from inciting against the Palestinians and the West Bank, as he said, “Israel must go out for a defensive war in the West Bank.”
According to what Yasser Manna, a Palestinian researcher on Israeli affairs, reported on Israeli Channel 7, the minister continued, “Everyone who talks about establishing a Palestinian state is wasting the blood of the settlers and endangering the state’s existence.”
According to the same channel, Israeli Knesset member Zvi Scott threatened the residents of Nablus after visiting the site of the operation, saying that they should know that “Israel, its people, its army, and its ruling authority have changed and gone mad, and that the operation is forbidden to pass quietly, and an event like this cannot occur while Nablus remains calm.”
In his explanation of the Awarta operation, Manaa told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the West Bank is witnessing a decline and rise in the curve of resistance operations, and is affected by the occupation’s practices and crimes in Gaza, in addition to its repressive measures and detention of people’s money, “all of which are indicators of the West Bank’s return to a hotspot.”
According to Manaa, Israel realizes that it cannot impose calm in the West Bank, especially in light of these circumstances of storming, arresting, and killing, and it knows that all of this affects the course of events and pushes toward escalation. “In other words, it cannot be said that operations have returned, because they have decreased and not ceased.” “.
Manna considered that Israel is trying to delay the confrontation and make the West Bank a secondary arena, but separating what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is very difficult, and it is also seeking to push the Palestinian Authority to make more concessions, in order to preserve Israel’s security, which the Authority will not be able to meet, Especially in light of Israel’s financial harassment.
I broke the control equation
Security and military expert, retired Major General Wassef Erekat, believes that the importance of these military operations lies in the fact that they take place in areas with a security and intelligence dimension, as the Israeli army believes that it has chosen a suitable place, while the Palestinian resistance chooses military sites as its target carefully. If an attack is achieved, “the effect will be material.” And morally, it affects the Israeli army more than any other site.”
Erekat adds that such operations may inspire other resistance cells, and says, “The successful model – especially targeting soldiers – generates similar models, and more.”
Erekat agrees with Manna that this operation broke the state of control and grip that Israel is trying to impose on the West Bank, refusing to call it the state of calm that the occupation seeks. He said, “Where there is occupation, there is no calm.” He explained the concealment of the full details of the operation until the moment by saying that the occupation army always prefers Not giving detailed information, so that the resistors do not take a lesson from it.
For his part, political analyst Suleiman Bisharat linked the Awarta operation to the occupation’s military and repressive measures, in Nablus in particular and throughout the West Bank, and the efforts of Israel and its extremist leaders, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, to tighten full control and security grip on the West Bank.
Bisharat told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the Awarta operation comes to break the equation that Israel is trying to impose, and also represents a challenge to its policies, through which it resorted to pressure on the Palestinians in the West Bank, in an attempt to weaken their presence.
He added that what happened re-raises the question of the extent to which the security approach succeeded in shaping or defining the Israeli-Palestinian relationship with the West Bank, or whether it must be re-evaluated and return to the concept of policies that give the Palestinians a political entity and freedom of movement and life.
In response to whether the “Awarta Operation” would escalate the work of the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank, Bisharat said that the Palestinians have become accustomed to a similar situation that has been continuing for more than two years, but it does not continue.
Since October 7, Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem have carried out – according to the Palestine Information Center “Ma’ta” – about 50 commando operations, in which 27 Israelis were killed and more than 280 people were wounded, while this May 3 Israelis were killed and 7 others were wounded.