Nablus – In an operation that is not the first among many attacks carried out by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian resistance fighters in the West Bank, its special forces assassinated 4 resistance fighters from the three camps of the city of Nablus (Balata, Al-Ain and Askar) in the northern West Bank, after targeting with live bullets a vehicle they were inside in the Eastern Market area of the city.
Video clips taken by Palestinians showed an assassination carried out by members of a special Israeli unit, targeting the four young men, most notably Issam Al-Sallaj, the leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – Youth of Revenge and Liberation, affiliated with the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), who survived four assassination and arrest attempts, and was injured in one of them. He was seriously injured about two years ago.
The data indicate that the occupation is working – with all its energy – to end the phenomenon of resistance in the West Bank, and it has recently escalated the policy of assassinating resistance fighters, which was and still is “its most successful means,” according to observers, but it will not end it at the same time.
Israeli failure
With this operation, the occupation reproduced a similar scene for Palestinians in general and Nabulsi in particular when it carried out the first assassination operation after a break for years against 3 resistance fighters on February 8, 2022 in the Al-Makhfiyya neighborhood in Nablus, and another scene a week ago when 14 resistance fighters and citizens were assassinated in the Tulkarm camp after being bombed with an air missile.
The Nablus operation confirms that the occupation continues to take revenge on individual and group resistance fighters, in its various ways, by air and land, racing against time in its attempt to “end” the phenomenon of resistance in the West Bank. Experts and politicians who spoke to Tel Aviv Tribune Net confirm his inability and failure in his endeavor, and stressed that his attempt will not stop the flow of resistance.
Member of the Nablus Factional Coordination Committee, Muhammad Dwikat, believes that the occupation’s messages from these assassinations are clear, which are to end the resistance or even suppress it and deter the state of struggle in general, but the Palestinians are responding to him with more persistence, and “therefore he is delusional if he thinks that he will bring the resistance to its knees or strip the people of their rights.” national and political forces and forces him to surrender.”
He told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that assassinations and other occupation methods of killing Palestinians will not stop resistance, as it is their first and only option, and as a result of the state of awareness that has formed among Palestinians over 76 years of occupation of the necessity of confronting its bloody plans and policies that aim to subjugate and displace the people in order to impose a new reality on them.
Despite the state of technological and intelligence development possessed by the occupation, Dweikat asserts that the “mass and random” assassinations it carries out are evidence of its failure so far to eradicate the resistance and prevent its continuation, and this requires greater caution, caution, and security measures on the part of the resistance fighters to prevent it from reaching them.
Revenge attempt
As for Israeli affairs researcher Yasser Manna, he believes that these assassinations reflect an Israeli failure to neutralize the West Bank and make it a secondary arena of confrontation, as it wanted since the beginning of the war, but it is still a major arena of confrontation and fighting.
He told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that since 2021, Israel has been operating in the West Bank through a policy of assassination with the aim of reducing resistance and eliminating armed groups, but it has failed to do so.
Manna added, “This leads us to confirm that it failed to separate the arenas, that is, to separate the Gaza front from the West Bank, Lebanon from Gaza, and the West Bank from the home front, despite the fact that this connection is not organized at all between those arenas.”
In explaining this failure, he explains that the assassination in Nablus was preceded by a commando operation carried out by a Palestinian in the city of Hadera and stabbed a number of settlers, some of whom were critically injured, in addition to the outbreak of confrontation hotspots in all the cities of the West Bank.
Researcher Manna does not find an explanation for the “violence” practiced by Israel in the assassination other than that it is an attempt to take revenge and show an image of victory that the occupation is looking for to convince the Israeli street and society that it is “capable and will act and take risks for the sake of lost security.” He says, “The Israeli today feels a loss of security on a personal level, and so he tries to restore the image through assassination operations, whether by bombing or special units.”
Despite this, Israel, through its long experience with the Palestinians, realizes that violence leads to counterproductive results, and thus, according to Manaa, it pushes a new generation of Palestinian youth to confront it.
Basic method
For his part, the political analyst and expert in Palestinian resistance movements does not see this Arabi sari Assassinations and their multiple methods are a new behavior for the occupation. Rather, they are its primary means of “dismantling” the resistance factions, and it will not waver from this policy no matter what challenges it faces in other resistance arenas and the war in Lebanon and Gaza.
On the contrary, Orabi told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the raging war will push the occupation to focus its efforts on the West Bank arena “to end the widespread armed formations and prevent their development,” and he is racing against time so that they do not grow and intensify, do not move to other places, and do not inherit their experience.
According to Orabi, the occupation is betting on assassination and arrest as the most effective means to stop the phenomenon of resistance and armed groups in the West Bank, relying on three basic foundations:
- The first is the special security conditions imposed in the West Bank.
- And his high intelligence capabilities.
- And his military strength in implementation.
According to him, the occupation believes that it is not easy for a resistance fighter who is arrested or assassinated to be compensated quickly, and the assassination he carries out is “expected” as it comes within the context of its security efforts. He is also intolerant or ignorant of the state of resistance in the West Bank, and is working to reduce it and weaken its ability to spread and expand. “He realizes that it cannot be completely ended.”
It is noteworthy that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant issued a military order – according to what was reported by the Hebrew media yesterday, Wednesday – to target Palestinian resistance fighters who hold military parades or participate in funerals, as if thereby expanding the circle of assassinations and targets.