A major operation has been launched in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces. Today marks the third day of Israeli raids across the north – they claim to have killed the head of the Palestinian armed group Hamas in Jenin and two other fighters. It’s understood that at least 12 Palestinians were killed in the first two days.
The UN has criticised the operation saying it is causing unnecessary deaths. Israel says it is looking for those behind an attempted suicide bombing on 18 August and has accused Iran of trying to establish a terrorist network in the West Bank.
A look at how the media is reacting to the ‘major operation’ by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
The war in Gaza has become a breaking point for the rules-based international order. That is also true in other occupied territories
“The war in Gaza has become a breaking point for the rules-based international order. That is also true in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel argues that it has to take action to protect itself from what it claims are attacks using Iranian-supplied arms. Yet bombing civilians from the skies looks like a way of terrorising a people into submission – and it is increasing.
“The world’s powers must ask why they seem incapable of finding an agreement to end the current bloodshed. Without a deal, faith in the global institutions risks withering away.”
The attack has a preventive function explains La Stampa:
“The Israeli government launched a series of counter-terrorism operations in the northern West Bank back in March 2022 because new Palestinian military organisations, such as the Jenin Brigades or Lion’s Den, had sprung up: organisations with a local and military character based on the Iraqi model and with links to Iran, which supplies them with weapons. A new, insidious galaxy of entities is thus emerging, which have no established operational links with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and which pose an additional threat to Israel. The latest military actions are preemptive attacks against these groups, and against Hamas and [Islamic] Jihad in the West Bank.”
Israeli authorities have weaponised all levers of colonial control:
“This Israeli talk of forced expulsion masked under the humanitarian term “evacuation” is raising fears that the West Bank will follow the fate of Gaza in terms of massive destruction and displacement.
If this does take place, it would be a major escalation of the Israeli government’s strategy of gradual dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank, which has been carried out directly through military means and settler attacks but also indirectly – through the purposeful degradation of all aspects of Palestinian life.”
There are enough interested parties to cause an escalation in the West Bank, writes Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Israel correspondent, Peter Münch:
“Hamas, which is under pressure in Gaza, has the greatest interest in shifting the combat zone. It is calling for an uprising in the West Bank and, as it proudly announced last week, is trying to smuggle suicide bombers into Israel. … On the other hand, radical settlers and their backers in the Israeli government are seizing the opportunity to push forward with their dream of a Greater Israel on two Palestinian fronts. The Israeli army is only able to keep the situation in the West Bank under control with increasingly large-scale deployments – and in the process it is fuelling new resistance. … The violence is spiralling.”
The occupied West Bank is the home of the widely unpopular and US-backed Palestinian Authority. It also neighbours Jordan, a key US ally with a majority of its population of Palestinian descent. Israel has broadened its war across the region, assassinating Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut. But its decision to launch a wide-scale offensive in the occupied West Bank could raise fears that Israel is entering a new conflict that will be harder to contain.”
There are enough interested parties to cause an escalation in the West Bank, writes Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Israel correspondent, Peter Münch:
“Hamas, which is under pressure in Gaza, has the greatest interest in shifting the combat zone. It is calling for an uprising in the West Bank and, as it proudly announced last week, is trying to smuggle suicide bombers into Israel. … On the other hand, radical settlers and their backers in the Israeli government are seizing the opportunity to push forward with their dream of a Greater Israel on two Palestinian fronts. The Israeli army is only able to keep the situation in the West Bank under control with increasingly large-scale deployments – and in the process it is fuelling new resistance. … The violence is spiralling.”