Ramallah- The town of “Ithna” was known as one of the most prominent hotspots in the West Bank during the “Stone Intifada”, which began in late 1987 and lasted for several years, but its participation was less severe in the “Al-Aqsa Intifada” in 2000, and in the subsequent uprisings, leading to the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood.
The town is located west of the city of Hebron, in the south of the West Bank, in a sensitive geographical location, which reduced the chances of it participating in popular anti-occupation activities, like other hot areas. To the west is the Israeli separation wall, and to the north of it is the Tarqumiya crossing, which is considered a lifeline linking the West Bank with the territories. Occupied in 1948.
This reality made many of the town’s residents turn to work in Israel, or in the scrap (metal) trade, recycling and separating them from each other, which is a very popular sector in the town.
The mother of the martyr, Uday Abu Jahisha, from the town of Ithna in Hebron: He was not offended by the blood of his countrymen, and he wanted to become like Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi. #Gaza_War #video pic.twitter.com/JQyHI7kdDm
– Tel Aviv Tribune Palestine (@AJA_Palestine) January 13, 2024
A new reality and different resistance
The situation changed in the town of 30,000 people on Friday, January 12, when the occupation army announced that it had managed to kill 3 young men who had managed to infiltrate the “Adora” settlement and injure a soldier. Then the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that the young men were: Muhammad Arafat Abu Jahisha. (15 years old), Uday Ismail Abu Jahisha (17 years old), and Ismail Ahmed Abu Jahisha (19 years old), all from the town of Idhna.
Immediately, the occupation – as part of a series of collective punishments against the town’s residents – began “a strict and suffocating siege of the town from various sides, widespread arrests, and raids on the homes of the martyrs’ families, vandalizing their contents and threatening to demolish them, with the demolition of 5 industrial facilities, and confiscation of trucks and vehicles,” according to what he stated. For Tel Aviv Tribune Net, Mayor Jaber Al-Tamizi.
#picture | The martyrs Ismail Abu Jahisha, Mahmoud Abu Jahisha, and Adi Abu Jahisha from the town of Idna, west of Hebron, who died after carrying out a shooting attack in the “Adora” settlement last night. pic.twitter.com/xLlALT9GVO
– Palestinian Information Center (@PalinfoAr) January 13, 2024
Not far from the town of Idhna and to the east of it, the town of Dura was on the verge of a violent Israeli incursion, which resulted in the martyrdom of the young woman Ahed Mahmoud Awlad Muhammad (24 years old), a mother of a little girl, while she was standing on the roof of her house, and the young man Muhammad Hassan Ibrahim Abu Sebaa (22 years old). years), 10 others were injured, and thousands of mourners came out to their funeral, raising the flags of the factions, in a scene that the town had not been accustomed to for years.
As for the east of the city of Hebron, the town of Bani Naim caught the attention, as the perpetrators of the stabbing and stomping attack in the city of “Raanana” inside the Green Line emerged from it on Monday, namely Ahmed Muhammad Ali Ziadat (25 years old) and his uncle Mahmoud Ali Salem Ziadat (44 years old). They were arrested on the same day.
The lives of the residents were upended by collective punishments, the entrances to the town were closed, the homes of the perpetrators were raided, their families were assaulted, and the measurements of the two homes were taken in preparation for their demolition.
A force of occupation soldiers storms the town of Bani Naim, east of Hebron in the West Bank pic.twitter.com/USttWfGSix
– Tel Aviv Tribune Palestine (@AJA_Palestine) January 14, 2024
Extension from north to south
What happened in the three towns in the southern West Bank over the past few days represented a new acceleration and expansion of the confrontation with the Israeli occupation, while the “Raanana” operation and the storming of the “Adora” settlement represented a diversity of confrontation tools.
In his reading of the course of the confrontation in the West Bank, political analyst Samer Anabtawi says, “It is true that the popular resistance was confined before last October 7 to some clash points in the West Bank, and the armed resistance was confined to some camps in the north, but the Israeli side sought to escalate the situation on the ground.”
Anabtawi added – in his speech to Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that “the policy of the Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, and the membership of the two extremist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, is escalation, and this was clear regarding the prisoners, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the settlements.”
Regarding the difference after last October 7, the analyst added, “The field situation began to escalate further, with hundreds of martyrs and thousands of wounded in 100 days in the West Bank, as a result of the Israeli army’s incursions, while manifestations of resistance began to extend to new areas such as Jericho, Qalqilya, Hebron, and Tulkarm, after the It was confined to Jenin camp, old Nablus, and some villages and camps.”
The non-governmental Palestinian Information Center “Ma’ta” also documented 567 Palestinian acts of resistance in various parts of the West Bank, between last December 15 and January 11 of this year, including 140 shooting operations, which affected almost all of the West Bank governorates.
As of Wednesday, the Israeli escalation in the West Bank led to the death of 360 Palestinians, the injury of nearly 2,200, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and the arrest of about 6,000, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.
Expansion of deterrence
Political analyst Anabtawi considers that “dealing with the West Bank depends on a conflict between two trends in Israel, one of which is a ruling trend that is waging an aggressive war against the entire Palestinian people, and the other is an opposition trend that warns of the explosion of the situation.”
He added, “It is true that the focus of the war is killing and destruction in the Gaza Strip, but there is an undeclared war on the West Bank, represented by the suppression and eradication of resistance before it develops, to achieve deterrence on the one hand, and impose sanctions on the Palestinian people on the other hand, and we see this in the systematic destruction of buildings and cars.” Targeting with aircraft, abusing prisoners, and dismembering areas.”
The political analyst added, “The second trend in Israel warns of an explosion in the situation, as a result of seizing the authority’s funds, increasing repression, and preventing workers from reaching their workplaces, thus opening a new front.”
Anabtawi believes that “the extremist trend that seeks to escalate in the West Bank prevails,” as it has not achieved the deterrence it seeks. He explains, “What we are witnessing today are continuous confrontations that are increasing in number and even extending to wider areas.”
The Palestinian analyst points out that “there is a cohesion that the occupation is trying to destroy without success. What happened in the Gaza Strip was a response to what was happening in the West Bank. Therefore, the West Bank is completely cohesive and compatible with the Gaza Strip, without this affecting the resolve of the Palestinian people.”