An Israeli attack in Jenin with combat helicopters killed seven Palestinians, Two Palestinians gun down an Israeli settlement in Eli killed four, And an Arab village was ransacked by Israeli residents, killing one Palestinian and injuring several others – the occupied West Bank has seen a sharp increase in violence this week, which has seen a spate of attacks and counter-attacks during the Second Intifada. Reminds me of waves. As Israel tightens its grip on the West Bank, where Jewish settlements are slowly developing, new, local Palestinian resistance groups such as the Jenin Brigade have emerged, using homemade weapons and low-tech bombs. Attacking Israeli soldiers and settlers. Jenin, in the northern West Bank, has emerged as a center of violent Palestinian resistance. Israel conducts raids in the area on an almost daily basis, causing casualties on the Palestinian side. According to the United Nations, Israel has killed at least 114 Palestinians, including civilians and terrorists, in the West Bank this year (as of June 12), while at least 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks. Tuesday’s raid came a day after the Israeli cabinet approved plans to build new settlements in the West Bank. Following the Eli attack by Palestinian gunmen, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to build 1,000 new settler homes.
The West Bank has been burning for a long time. Israel, which has set up outposts in the occupied territories even as the occupation deepens, has so far managed to prevent the rise of another organized resistance following the Second Intifada. As hopes of a political solution waned, Palestinians launched isolated, often suicide, knife attacks against Israeli soldiers (known by some as the ‘knife intifada’). But in the latest round of violence, local Palestinian groups are carrying out major attacks and, in retaliation, Israel will shell Palestinian villages and demolish the attackers’ homes with impunity. The Palestinians are divided, with Fatah controlling the West Bank and Islamist Hamas ruling Gaza. The Arab world, once supportive of Palestinian statehood aspirations, is now focused on improving relations with Israel. The US and Europe, which are sending Ukraine billions of dollars and some of their most advanced weapons to help it fight Russia, hardly raise a voice when Israeli soldiers are killing Palestinians in the occupied territories every day. The status quo in the West Bank and Gaza (blockade by Israel for over a decade) is a recipe for disaster. Unless there is a genuine effort to liberate Israeli settlements and start negotiations between the two sides, the cycle of violence will continue unabated.