By Shahrokh Saei
Israel’s West Bank assault aims to paper over military failures on Gaza battlefield
TEHRAN - Israel’s largest assault on the occupied West Bank since the second Intifada along with the genocidal war in Gaza have thrown a spotlight on the regime’s ulterior motives and conspiracies against the Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military launched raids across the northern West Bank late Tuesday.
Jenin, which is seen by Israel as the beating heart of Palestinian resistance, has been the focus of the Israeli assault. At least 20 Palestinians, including children, have been killed in Jenin, Nablus, Tubas, and Tulkarem since the offensive began and many more have been wounded.
Israel claims it is targeting fighters. But Palestinian people say Israeli troops deliberately attack refugee camps while also destroying roads and infrastructure. They see the Israeli raids as a widening of the war in Gaza and an effort to perpetuate the regime’s decades-long military rule over the territory.
“The Israelis are creating an environment that pushes people out destroying infrastructure almost completely, and cutting electricity and water – they want to leave people with nothing so that they would ultimately have no option but to leave on their own,” activist Hussein al-Sheikh Ali told Al Jazeera in Tulkarem.
Reminiscent of Nakba
The raids in the West Bank have focused on refugee camps that date back to the 1948 war surrounding the establishment of the Israeli regime.
David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of Israel on May 14, 1948.
Palestinians refer to the tragic event, which falls on May 15 each year, as the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe.
More than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in a war between Israel and Arab armies that erupted a day later.
Israel did not allow Palestinians to come back to their homes after the war.
Currently, three million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli occupation and it now seems that the regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to create another Nakba.
On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for the “temporary evacuation” of Palestinians from the West Bank under the pretext of fighting Palestinian resistance fighters.
This conspiracy is redolent of the schemes that the Israeli army designed in the Gaza Strip after launching war on the territory on October 7 last year.
Around 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, and Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives have caused vast destruction.
Israel has been accused of plotting to evacuate Gaza’s 2.3 million population to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
And now Katz wants to pave the way for the occupied West Bank to follow a similar fate to Gaza in terms of enormous destruction and displacement.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have foiled Israel’s plot to forcibly transfer them by putting up stiff resistance against the regime’s army on the battlefield.
Palestinians in the West Bank are now following suit. Resistance fighters, particularly in Jenin, have fought against Israeli soldiers and dealt heavy blows to them.
In fact, Israel’s acts of aggression have taught Palestinians in the West Bank a good lesson.
Palestinian uprising
Israel’s atrocious crimes against Palestinians resulted in the first Intifada or uprising in 1987.
Hamas was established after the outbreak of the uprising.
Concerns over the growing power of Palestinian resistance pushed the United States to resolve the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians through negotiations.
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators signed the US-mediated Oslo Accords in 1993, but no progress was made toward achieving Palestinian statehood and ending the regime’s aggression and occupation.
Frustration and anger rose among Palestinians against the backdrop of Israel’s refusal to abide by the Oslo Accords.
It was one of the main reasons that sparked the Second Intifada in 2000. Israel killed thousands of Palestinians during the two uprisings.
Many more Palestinians have also been killed at the hands of Israelis in the West Bank over the past two decades, including 650 people who have lost their lives since the start of the Gaza war nearly 11 months ago.
Israel is killing more Palestinians in the West Bank as the death toll from its brutal onslaught on Gaza has topped 40,600.
The Israeli army has failed to achieve its goals in Gaza which mainly include the elimination of Hamas. Hence, it continues to kill defenseless civilians to divert attention away from its failures and create the impression that it has made gains as the war marks its 330th day.
Israeli military officials and war minister Yoav Gallant have explicitly admitted that the Netanyahu regime will be unable to defeat Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas has turned the Gaza battlefield into the graveyard for Israeli soldiers who are falling victim to the regime’s elusive war.
A similar scenario will be unfolding in the West Bank if Israel presses ahead with its military operations. Israeli forces will be digging their own graves if they continue the offensive and will experience hell on earth.
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