Israel engaged in parallel war in occupied West Bank: Analysts

RAMALLAH, Palestine

While Israel is carrying out its deadly onslaught on the Gaza Strip, a parallel war is also taking place in the occupied West Bank through its army's intensive raids and attacks.

Political analysts told Anadolu that Israel is militarizing the West Bank with military checkpoints along with mass campaigns of arrests and attacks against Palestinian fighters and groups.

Since the eruption of the fighting in Gaza between Palestinian groups and Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli army has so far killed 194 Palestinians and detained more than 2,520 across the West Bank in an attempt to curb Palestinian activism in support of Gaza.

Militarizing West Bank

Speaking to Anadolu, Sulaiman Bsharat, the director of the Ramallah-based NGO Yabous for Consulting & Strategic Studies, said the Israeli army escalated attacks in the West Bank to prevent Palestinians from participating in activities that show solidarity with Gaza.

He also said that the Israeli measures included installing military checkpoints to cut the connectivity between the Palestinian areas in the West Bank.

“There is a militarization process and closure of the West Bank governorates by erecting dozens of military checkpoints to prevent Palestinians from clashing with the Israeli forces,” Bsharat said.

The Israeli army is seizing the international cover for Israel's war on Gaza to carry out intensified raids across the West Bank with the aim of destroying the Palestinian resistance capabilities, he noted.

‘Mass popular act’

Political Science professor Bilal Showbaky told Anadolu that Israel is aware that there is no guarantee to keep the West Bank out of clashes.

He noted that the Israeli army has implemented a wide campaign of arrests across the West Bank against figures it believes may be part of mobilizing the Palestinians in the West Bank against the Israeli occupation.

"There is a rational thinking within the Israeli council of war regarding how to deal with the West Bank, including keeping the Palestinian Authority functioning and transferring the taxes to the Palestinian government in the West Bank," Showbaky also said.

He, however, said that any Palestinian move in the West Bank requires a political will to turn into a mass popular act. "Israel is afraid of the street move (in reference to a mass popular act) much more than the individual military attacks (against Israeli targets in the West Bank)."

Settlers’ attacks on Palestinians

The director of the Al-Quds Center for Studies, Ahmad Awad, sees that the West Bank is already belligerent despite the Israeli moves to restrict Palestinian activity there.

"The Palestinian public may not tend to participate in mass popular acts, but the struggle is raging and this is represented in the military attacks (against Israeli targets) in the West Bank," Awad said.

He also said Israel believes its policy of mass arrests, closure of roads, and allowing Israeli settlers to attack the Palestinians is successful.

Palestinian rights groups have documented hundreds of settlers’ assaults on Palestinians and their properties across the West Bank since Oct. 7 under the Israeli army cover and protection.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar