While the eyes of the whole planet are on Gaza Stripwhere casualties have exceeded 4,000 from the Israeli pounding and the ground invasion is imminent, on the other side of Israel, in West Banka “silent mount” appears to be in progress.
In accordance with Al Jazeeragroups of heavily armed Israelis, from adjacent settlements, attack areas driving out Palestinians. The situation is explosive throughout the West Bank and attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers are already deadly.
According to the agency Reutersover 70 people have been killed in violent clashes across the region since October 7, while the Israelis have made over 800 arrests.
The Israelis also bombed a Palestinian camp on Thursday, killing at least 12 people. Also on October 12, another attack took place in Wadi al-Siq, one of the Palestinian Bedouin villages. The violent displacements not only continue, but, according to human rights and peace organizations, have increased in the past two weeks, since the Hamas attack on the Jewish state.
Testimonies state that the heavily armed settlers in some cases also have the support of Israeli security forces. The invasions of Palestinian settlements seem to be completely organized. “It’s happening all over the West Bank,” Israeli peace activist Guy Hirschfeld told Al Jazeera, adding: “The settlers are taking advantage of the situation and doing what they want.”
According to information from the West Bank Protection Consortium (WBPC) and the Israeli human rights organization “Yesh Din”, in “Area C”, a part of the occupied West Bank under Israeli security and political control, have been forcibly displaced since October 7 approximately 545 Palestinians from at least 13 communities.
The violence extends throughout “Area C,” including the South Hebron Hills, the area east of Ramallah toward Jericho, the Jordan Valley, and Nablus. Testimonies state that many Palestinians, under a regime of terror and fear, decide to leave their areas and move en masse to “Area B” so as not to face the armed settlers.
“I received phone calls from more than 20 communities giving me the same message: We’re afraid the settlers will come and massacre us,” said a humanitarian aid coordinator in Area C, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of employer rules.
“Settler violence is not separate from state violence. It is an unofficial arm of the state to occupy Palestinian land.”, said Dror Sadot, representative of the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. “That was their plan before, and it’s the plan right now. So, of course, they are taking advantage of the fact that no one is looking at them right now to take over Palestinian land en masse».
The West Bank at the heart of Israel’s strategy
It is recalled that the settlements in the West Bank, which have been criticized by the international community, had a dominant position in Israel’s strategy. Yes, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu he had “bet” on Hamas, as it served his plans for the area under the control of the Palestinian Authority (Fatah), which is internationally recognized as the legitimate representative of the Palestinians.
His rationale unfolds in a speech he gave in 2019 during a meeting of his party’s caucus. “Anyone who wants to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state must support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money. This is part of our strategy—to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank,” Benjamin Netanyahu had emphasized.
In short, like he was referring to an earlier Newsbeast analysisturning the Gaza Strip into a locked prison with an internationally recognized “terrorist organization” as its prisoner “leader”, the Netanyahu government could focus on the West Bank settlements, gradually proceeding to annex more territory.
The big plan
Experts and analysts in the Middle East from the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict estimated that Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal is much bigger than the “elimination” of the Palestinian Authority. This was evidenced by his statements and especially his mention that Israel’s operation “will change the Middle East”. A common assessment in the Arab world is that the Israeli prime minister never had only the Gaza Strip in mind, but also the West Bank.
Memories of the “Nakba”, the “catastrophe”, have been awakened in the Palestinians. which refers to the 1948 war for the creation of Israel which led to their mass displacement and massive loss of land (see map). “Just as they did in 1948, when they drove the world out of historic Palestine by dropping barrels of explosives on their heads, today Israel is repeating this in front of the world’s eyes and live on camera,” he said a few days ago to Reuters. o Talal Okal, Gaza analyst.
Source: News Beast
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