by Farrukh Abadi
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed and others wounded in the West Bank as Israel’s latest incursion in the occupied territory continues. Early Wednesday morning, Israel launched one of its largest attacks on the West Bank in decades, with hundreds of soldiers, armored vehicles and bulldozers, drones, and jets carrying out attacks across the occupied territory, focused mainly on the refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas. On Thursday, the IDF pulled out of Tulkarm and Tubas, but has continued its attacks on Jenin, a historic site of Palestinian resistance that has often faced concentrated Israeli attacks. Palestinian forces have put up a stiff resistance, carrying out multiple ambushes and a two-stage attack on a settlement resulting in several confirmed casualties, despite the conditions of genocide and heightened surveillance.
The escalation comes as Israeli ministers have called to ramp up attacks on the West Bank as part of a “counter-terrorism” operation, with one minister calling for the “temporary evacuation” of Palestinians like in Gaza. With the use of bulldozers and aerial strikes, the operation has caused massive damage to infrastructure and housing. The IDF has targeted hospitals, medical personnel, mosques, and water and electricity infrastructure, designed to make the areas under siege uninhabitable as part of their decades-long genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Israel has conducted raids on the West Bank on a near daily basis over the last few years, though they have increased in intensity and frequency since October 7, with roughly 3 times more raids taking place. Since October 7, Israel has arrested at least 10,200 Palestinians, killed more than 640, and injured more than 5,400 in the West Bank.
There has also been a corresponding uptick in armed resistance to the Israeli genocide, as Palestinians in the West Bank have increasingly organized and armed themselves into local militias affiliated with the various resistance factions. Amidst the current assault, Palestinians have engaged in fierce resistance, killing at least one IDF soldier and injuring others, in addition to destroying several military vehicles. The resistance in the West Bank is growing despite the actions of the collaborator Palestinian Authority and the segmentation of the Palestinian population by militarized Zionist settlements and checkpoints.
In response to the ongoing siege, Hamas stated: “The occupation’s failure in its aggression on Tulkarem, Tubas, and other areas is the inevitable outcome that will also result from its current assault on Jenin. The occupation’s massacres, crimes, and violations in the West Bank will not break our people’s resilience or weaken the strength of our resistance, whose formidable force and strategic strikes the world has witnessed, causing severe casualties and damage to the occupation’s military machinery.”
During the operation, the Israeli military assassinated Wissam Khazem, the Hamas commander in Jenin, and Muhammad Jaber “Abu Shujaa”, the founder of the Tulkarm Brigade.
Abu Shujaa was born in 1998 in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarm and was active in the resistance from a young age. He co-founded the Tulkarm Brigade in 2022 in affiliation with Islamic Jihad and became its commander later in the year. The Brigade coordinates with other resistance groups and carries out operations across the West Bank. In April, the Tulkarm Brigade wounded at least 9 IDF soldiers during an Israeli raid on the Nur Shams camp.
In late July, Abu Shujaa was wounded by an explosive device and hospitalized. Upon learning about this, the Palestinian Authority deployed security forces to arrest him. Various Palestinian groups quickly mobilized to prevent his arrest, with masses of people surrounding the hospital and resistance fighters carrying out armed actions against PA forces, who eventually backed down.
In an interview earlier this month with the Lebanese news network Al-Mayadeen, Abu Shujaa said: “If the enemy assassinates me, we will continue. The struggle does not end with one person, there are generations that rise to defend our rights, and the biggest indicator is the martyrdom of a Palestinian and more in each home in Tulkarm, and the Resistance continues.”
