Israel Expands Military Operations In The West Bank, Beginning What Could Be Its Largest Offensive There In Decades
Israeli forces reportedly raided dozens of Palestinian towns in the West Bank on Saturday, marking the beginning of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised would be a large-scale military operation in the Palestinian territory.
“The defense minister and I are considering a large-scale military operation in Judea and Samaria [the Israeli term for the West Bank], the likes of which the region has not seen since the Six-Day War,” Netanyahu said in a video he published during a visit to Hebron on Friday, a West Bank city where two Israeli soldiers were killed and three lightly wounded earlier that same day.
Two Palestinian gunmen were also killed during the altercation.
Netanyahu said the perpetrators, who were armed with a handgun and an M16 rifle, belonged to Hamas and the IDF claimed that their goal was to attack civilians.
Referring to the neighborhood in Hebron which allegedly housed the attackers, Netanyahu said that the IDF would “evacuate the residents, go house-to-house, confiscate the weapons there and all terrorist infrastructures will be dealt with and destroyed.”
“At the same time, we are cordoning off the cities of Hebron and Halhul. We will consider expanding this model to other cities as well,” the Israeli leader continued.
Operations have indeed not been limited to the Southern West Bank cities of Hebron and Halhul. Al Jazeera correspondents reported on Saturday that Israeli forces had raided at least 15 towns in the northern West Bank, detaining dozens of Palestinians.
In Hebron itself, Israeli forces have also already forcibly evacuated hundreds of Palestinian families and started demolishing buildings in the city, a common practice by Israeli forces against Palestinian homes suspected of housing terrorists.
Human rights groups such as B’Tselem have criticized such tactics as a form of collective punishment.
The start of the operation comes at a critical time for Israeli society, as the Middle Eastern country will hold legislative elections on October 27, with the final round of major polls released on Friday showing that Netanyahu’s governing bloc will secure 50 seats and the opposition bloc 54, with both coalitions falling short of the 61 seats needed for a majority.
It is unclear whether the West Bank operation will bolster Netanyahu’s chances of electoral victory; Netanyahu is the longest serving Israeli Prime Minister, having held the role non-consecutively for a total of 19 years since 1996.
He has made safeguarding Israel’s security a key message in his re-election campaign, and even claimed in his video message from Hebron that the recent attack proved his previous warnings that there would be “attempts by our enemies to harm us, our citizens, and our soldiers ahead of the elections” correct.
The West Bank is recognized by the majority of the international community, including the UN, as a Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation. The area is home to hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers, who live in settlements considered illegal by the International Court of Justice.
The Palestinian territory has witnessed an uptick in settler violence recently, with Palestinian farmers collecting their olive harvests, foreign diplomats and foreign media all coming under attack recently.
