West Bank resistance ops jumped by 350 percent in 2023: Report

News Desk - The Cradle 

The rise in resistance operations last year coincided with a drastic surge in settler violence against Palestinians

Resistance operations in the occupied West Bank surged dramatically last year compared to 2022. 

There was a 350 percent jump in the number of resistance operations in 2023, Hebrew media cited army sources as saying on 19 February. 

There have been 608 shooting operations, run-over operations, stabbing operations, and explosive attacks in the occupied West Bank in 2023, according to the sources, compared to the 170 operations in 2022. 

They added that 300 percent of the operations in 2023 were shooting operations. In the first half of 2023, 50 shooting operations were conducted in Jenin. 

Resistance operations have also surged in several areas of the West Bank since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the start of the war in Gaza.

At least two Israelis were killed on 16 February in a shooting operation near the occupied city of Ashdod, southern Israel. The shooter was a resident of east Jerusalem. 

Two days later, a deadly Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem killed one Palestinian and injured several others. The incursion triggered heavy clashes between Israeli forces and resistance fighters. 

The Israeli army carries out brutal raids into West Bank cities in what it claims are operations to root out terrorism. However, civilians are very often killed in these raids. In July 2023, the army launched a massive incursion into the city of Jenin, killing 12, injuring over 100, and displacing thousands.

Several resistance operations took place in the months preceding the operation. 

Among the dozens of operations carried out in 2022, one shooting targeted the Hebron home of Israel’s current national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir. 

In the last few years, resistance groups affiliated with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement in the occupied West Bank have risen to prominence. Groups like the Jenin Brigade of the PIJ Al-Quds Brigades and others have been highly active. 

Resistance operations are often carried out by members of West Bank groups but also by lone-wolf perpetrators. 

The surge in resistance operations last year coincided with a significant rise in the frequency of violent settler attacks against Palestinians, which are ideologically encouraged by ministers such as Ben Gvir and are greenlit by the Israeli government.