The Israeli army killed three Palestinian military commanders – including one from Hamas’ Qassam Brigades and two from Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – as well as a mother and her child in a raid in the occupied West Bank on Monday, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.
Several army convoys and bulldozers also stormed the Tulkarem refugee camp, where the five people were killed, destroying homes, markets and entire neighborhoods in the attack.
Like the entire West Bank, Tulkarem has been subjected to Israeli military raids and settler attacks that intensified after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to lead a far-right government in late 2022. The devastation caused by these raids intensified further after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7.
Israel says its near-daily raids are necessary to capture Hamas cells and ensure its security. But its critics say the raids exacerbate the root causes of armed resistance to Israel’s decades-long occupation, which was declared illegal last week by the International Court of Justice.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel killed 203 people in the West Bank between January and June 6 this year. That is 75 more people killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers than in the same period last year.
Activists and experts say Israel is exaggerating the threat of what it calls “terrorism” to justify the surge in violence, which has led to mass displacement and the expansion of illegal settlements.
Here’s everything you need to know about the surge in violence resulting from operations in the West Bank.
How many raids have taken place and who are they targeting?
Israel has been carrying out near-daily military raids in the occupied West Bank, long before the current war on Gaza. Israel says the raids are aimed at maintaining security, but residents say they serve no purpose except to remind them of the realities of life under occupation.
Cities such as Jenin, Tulkarem and the Nur Shams refugee camp are frequently targeted, and exchanges of fire with Palestinian gunmen are common.
Shadi Abdullah, an activist from the Tulkarem refugee camp, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the Israeli military typically fires missiles at residential areas, destroys educational centers and hospitals, cuts off electricity and kills or injures civilians in almost every raid.
These same tactics have been widely reported across the West Bank and particularly in Jenin, where much of the camp has been reduced to rubble. Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in the camp during one such raid in May 2022.
“The Israelis do not distinguish between resistance fighters and civilians,” Abdullah told Tel Aviv Tribune
“They are also trying to make the areas unlivable so that Palestinians migrate from one Palestinian city to another… this is a form of forced displacement,” he added.
Who are the Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank?
Israel has long said it is targeting Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad factions in the West Bank, as well as new independent armed groups that have emerged in recent years.
According to the Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency tasked with monitoring and thwarting domestic threats, it recently arrested a number of Birzeit University students who it said were planning a “major terrorist attack” against Israeli forces or settlers.
“We heard that the student movements were going to trigger something in the West Bank, but the Israelis don’t care whether it’s popular resistance or armed resistance. They’re not interested in any escalation,” said Tasame Ramadan, a Palestinian activist from Nablus in the West Bank.
“(Israel) wants (the Palestinians) to feel controlled and they want them to fear for their lives,” she added.
Tahani Mustafa, senior Palestine analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG), said many young men are taking up arms or joining armed factions to protect themselves and their communities from settler violence – which is increasing without much resistance from the army – and army raids.
“Whether it’s student movements or armed groups, there are pockets of resistance in the West Bank and the idea that they are affiliated with Hamas or supported by Iran is (something that Israel is pushing) because it fits with notions of what constitutes legitimate violence,” she said.
“Frankly, it doesn’t work well for the Western narrative if they learn that the majority of these fighters are just disillusioned and dispossessed Fatah voters.”
Fatah is a major Palestinian faction that controls the Palestinian Authority (PA), the entity responsible for governing most of the West Bank.
Are the settlers involved?
Yes, and often.
Jewish settlers regularly attack entire Palestinian villages, seeking to expand the territory they occupy in the West Bank. Among the hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in illegal settlements in the West Bank, many regard these lands as part of Israel’s territory – and the Palestinians as an obstacle to their conquest.
While settlers regularly carry out attacks against Palestinians without prior justification, they engage in particularly aggressive raids when their own settlements are attacked.
In April, an Israeli teenager was found dead in the occupied West Bank, sparking a wave of armed attacks and illegal settler militias. The violence resulted in the death of a 17-year-old Palestinian boy and numerous injuries.
“The settlers are still protected by the army,” Abdullah said.
He added that security forces and settlers use “terrorism” as a justification for attacking Palestinians, displacing them from their villages and stealing their land.
Why is the Palestinian Authority failing to protect its voters?
Because it does not want to overturn the Oslo Accords of 1993.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was born out of that agreement, which saw then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shake hands with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the lawn of the US White House.
These agreements were supposed to pave the way for the creation of a Palestinian state, but they have simply resulted in the establishment of close security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
Moreover, the agreements have effectively hampered the Palestinian Authority, Tahani said. As a governing body, it is unable to protect its members from Israeli soldiers and aggressive settlers who violate its jurisdiction in large areas of the West Bank.
“The PA doesn’t bother to retaliate against Israeli settlers or soldiers, they don’t even make arrests,” Tahani told Tel Aviv Tribune. “Unfortunately, the PA has no authority over the Israelis… so what are the Palestinians supposed to do?”
