In the early hours of Wednesday, the 28th of August 2024, the Israeli army announced it would be conducting a large-scale military operation focused in the northern occupied West Bank. However, this operation has already spread elsewhere in the occupied territory and is directly connected to its war on the Gaza Strip, fitting into a larger Israeli plot to annex Palestinian land.
Israel’s “Operation Summer Camps,” which the occupation army announced was geared towards serving its “security interests” and destroying Palestinian resistance groups, has already begun to take shape as a Gaza-style campaign. Israel has used attack helicopters and drones in addition to special forces units and armored bulldozers to kill over 30 people across Tubas, Tulkarem and Jenin. On top of this, it has also sought to completely destroy the local infrastructure in these areas, causing residents to flee their homes on foot with what little belongings they have.
Western corporate media have reported on the military operation, which has primarily targeted refugee camps like Nour Shams in Tulkarem, al-Fara’a in Tubas and Jenin refugee camp, as being a separate issue from Gaza. However, the evidence points in the opposite direction. From October 7, 2023, when the genocide in Gaza began, until August 31, 2024 over 660 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank. In fact, every year since 2021 the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank has risen, to levels that match those death tolls recorded during the Second Intifada of the early 2000’s. This new Israeli military assault however, is the largest in the West Bank since the infamous “Operation Defensive Shield” in 2002, which led to the killing of around 500 Palestinians.
The Broader Context: Annexation and Resistance
Jewish-American Middle East historian, Zachary Foster, spoke to red. media about the nature of Israel’s military operation. He says that the West Bank is another front of the Gaza Genocide and is “inherently connected because it is part of the same struggle.” “Israel believes it can eradicate militant resistance through force. This was the belief in Gaza, that you can actually kill every single fighter and there would be no new fighters. The same seems to be the belief in the West Bank, that you can just go around and kill every fighter, then when you kill them all there will be no more resistance.”
Elaborating on why this campaign was launched now on the orders of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Zachary Foster also noted that “this is also about his coalition partners” and that “they are hellbent on annexing the West Bank.” He further adds, “In July 2023, they essential already did annex large swathes of the West Bank, putting the administration in charge of the settlers, calling it a civilian administration, this has been put in place under the Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, previously they were under the control of the army, but has been transferred to a civilian branch of the Israeli government making it essentially dejure annexation.”
Speaking to red. media on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive security situation, a Hamas leader in the West Bank said that “the enemy decided to carry out the military operation with several goals, the most important of which are: preventing the resistance in the West Bank from accumulating its experience and developing; preventing the West Bank from becoming a main battlefront that affects the deployment of forces and capabilities; and helping the religious-nationalist movement implement its plans.” He also added that “The current battle in the West Bank is to confront the decisive project launched by Smotrich with Netanyahu’s approval last June, and is being implemented through the armed settler militias established by the Zionist Minister of National Security Ben-Gvir.”
Israeli Tactics and the Future of the West Bank
The Hamas official also stated that the campaign designed to target the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank is not only connected to the war in Gaza but “is central and at the heart of the Zionist project’s agenda, as controlling the West Bank has religious and geographical importance for the Zionist project.” “This [religious-nationalist Zionist] movement considers the defeat of Palestinian society to be an essential part of implementing its vision to control the West Bank, and this defeat can only be achieved through force.”
“The enemy acknowledges the development of the resistance and its way of thinking in managing the conflict with it, and this is consistent with an effort that has extended for at least five years. The resistance in the West Bank needs assistance in weapons supplies, as its capabilities are modest and it is waiting for all Arabs and Muslims to support it. The resistance in the West Bank and Gaza is one resistance.”
When asked whether the Israeli military may have successes in its attempts to destroy the West Bank resistance and whether the armed groups have a strategy to carry on in the event that Israel does replicate the 2002 assault on the territory’s resistance forces, the Hamas official offered the following assessment: “The resistance today is made up of waves. The enemy may succeed in a military operation and the resistance may retreat for a month or two, but it returns stronger and more planned, and this is what the enemy indicated. Operation Defensive Shield was a major operation similar to the pattern of wars, as the enemy mobilized more than 30,000 soldiers in the West Bank in order to eradicate the resistance, but as a result, the resistance is still present on the ground of the Jenin camp, the site of the famous battle.”
Commenting on the role of the Palestinian Authority, which in 2002 had actually been on the side of the resistance groups to some extent, the Hamas leader told red.media: “The Palestinian Authority is still playing a neutral role at best, while it has played roles in favor of the occupation by pursuing the resistance and dismantling explosive devices. Today, the invitation is open to every free and honorable person in the Authority, especially members of the security services or anyone who sees himself as free and honorable, to be with the resistance. The leadership of the Authority must stand by its people and confront the brutal enemy that is implementing the project of decisiveness in the West Bank openly and under its eyes.”
Another element of Israel’s attack on the northern West Bank is its attempt to replicate their strategy used against the Gaza Strip. Specifically, by using widespread collective punishment through the destruction of infrastructure and the fragmentation of the territory to place Palestinians in isolated enclaves. Foster noted that this Israeli government “has for some time been dead set on taking over the West Bank and by the way, that’s why around 75% of Israeli forces were deployed in the West Bank, not in Gaza, on the eve of October 7, because of the desire to take it over.”
“You are seeing the same military tactics by Israel”, as the ones being used in Gaza, Foster notes He cites the use of drone strikes, the utilization of hellfire missiles and the blockade of aid. Foster tells us that “they are blocking aid, for example, in the Jenin refugee camp you can’t get in aid. You have dozens of families that are essentially stranded with no food and no electricity. They are essentially just stranded in their homes, surrounded by Israeli armored personnel carriers […] with no ability to flee the violence. That is exactly what Israel has done in Gaza.”
Israeli forces have also besieged hospitals in Tulkarem, Tubas and Jenin, while executing civilians in the streets and destroying the roads with armored bulldozers. Israel immediately began blowing up mosques too, starting with the Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq Mosque in Tubas. On the second day of the assault, an elderly Palestinian man named Ayed Abu Al-Haija was shot in the head in front of his home in Nour Shams refugee camp. In Jenin, a 50-year-old named Ayman Rajeh Abed, from the town of Kafr Dan, was left dead at the Salem checkpoint after being kidnapped and interrogated by Israeli forces during their invasion, with clear signs that he was tortured to death.
An Annexation Operation
For some time, Israel has eyed the annexation of the West Bank. However, it is important to note that this plot is not intended to include the major Palestinian population centers. Instead, the focus is on annexing what is known as Area C, constituting some 60% of the West Bank. It is clear that this is the intention of the Israeli government, not only due to its own rhetoric, but even when it comes to which American presidential candidates Israeli lobbyists choose to support. For example, Miriam Adelson (Israel’s richest billionaire) pledged $100 million to the campaign of Donald Trump with the understanding that should he become President, he will recognize Israeli annexation of the West Bank
Ultimately, the military campaign that is now being launched in the northern West Bank is not isolated to Tulkarem, Tubas and Jenin. Instead, there have been frequent raids and curfews placed on other major cities, such as al-Khalil, following a series of military operations targeting Israeli soldiers and security personnel. Refugee camps in Bethlehem, Nablus and the area surrounding Ramallah have also been raided. This strategy has now triggered a series of retaliatory lone wolf operations in the southern West Bank, which has killed four Israeli soldiers and security personnel and even injured a commander of the Etzioni Brigade. This indicates that instead of bringing about stability and security, the military operation is having the opposite effect and is only encouraging further resistance. Yet, the use of collective punishment and isolating key portions of the West Bank from one another is all part of a strategy to help pave the way for an easier transition into annexation.
