Jerusalem — With international attention focused on the war in the Gaza Strip, a major escalation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is attracting far less attention than it deserves. In fact, another Israeli-Palestinian battlefront is taking shape there, and all signs point to increased bloodshed.
Since the Gaza war started on October 7 with Hamas’s attack in Israeli border communities, already vulnerable Palestinians in the West Bank have been facing intensified military incursions. This includes growing settler violence, often with the involvement of soldiers, and the displacement of small herding villages on land coveted by Israel.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian population is becoming more radicalized, with support for Hamas significantly increasing. The belief that violence is the preferred means for dealing with occupation is proliferating, especially in the absence of any political horizon, according to recent poll results.
West Bank Palestinians, already enraged by the heavy civilian death toll among their brethren in Gaza, say they are under onslaught amid Israeli crackdowns. “There is an unannounced war on the Palestinians in the West Bank,” Issa Amro, a resident of the flashpoint city of Hebron and head of the group Youth Against Settlements, told TRENDS.
At A Glance * Escalation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank overshadowed by Gaza conflict. * Military incursions and growing settler violence have intensified in the West Bank. * Palestinian population is becoming more radicalized, with increasing support for Hamas. * High civilian death toll in Gaza fuels anger and violence in the West Bank. * Israeli government's pro-settler policies are contributing to worsening conditions. * Israeli army operations include drone strikes in response to perceived Hamas threats. * Record number of Palestinians are in administrative detention without trial. * There is a rise in death toll in West Bank, including children, amid increased Israeli raids.
Conditions were already bleak due to the policies of the most pro-settler government in Israeli history, he said. But after October 7, they have worsened significantly, he added.
“There are more checkpoints, stricter measures, more closures, and more restrictions on expression. It’s a tough, tough situation. Violence will erupt more and more. People are angry because of what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in the West Bank,” Amro said.
While the United States is promoting a two-state compromise solution to follow up the Gaza war, at the moment, that seems like mere rhetoric. The more likely trajectory is toward a more deeply entrenched Israeli hold on the West Bank, potentially igniting greater Palestinian opposition and escalating cycles of violence.
There is an unannounced war on the Palestinians in the West Bank.
Issa Amro, Hebron resident and head of Youth Against Settlements
Israel’s far-right government considers the West Bank a Jewish biblical patrimony to be held for eternity and rules out Palestinian statehood. Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is weak and unpopular. The publics on each side have become more uncompromising in light of the Hamas attack and the devastating war. Thus, conditions for a peace agreement have only become more distant.
On the ground, the situation is even more discouraging. Hardly a day passes without news of a deadly army raid in the northern West Bank. Last week, Israeli troops mounted a three-day operation in Jenin, killing 12 people and taking about 100 people prisoner while damaging vital infrastructure, according to Palestinian officials.
On Monday, four Palestinians were killed, two of them minors, during a raid in the Faraa refugee camp near the town of Tubas. Israel says such raids, which now sometimes include drone strikes, are necessary to thwart Hamas violence. But Palestinians point to mass funerals for slain militants and say the Israeli military is escalating the confrontation that has been underway since Israel occupied the West Bank during the Arab-Israeli war in 1967 and began building settlements there, in violation of international law.
This is part of our warfare against Hamas, which we wage not only in Gaza. The goal is to destroy Hamas in the West Bank too.
Yaacov Amidror, former director of Israel’s National Security Council
According to Yaacov Amidror, former director of Israel’s National Security Council, more than half of those being arrested in the raids are affiliated with Hamas. “This is part of our warfare against Hamas, which we wage not only in Gaza. The goal is to destroy Hamas in the West Bank too,” Amidror told Trends.
Israel has to carry out such raids, he said, because in some locales, the Palestinian Authority, which runs semi-autonomous enclaves and cooperates with Israel on security, is too weak to curb what Israel views as terrorism and Palestinians see as resistance.
Since Palestinians are being placed in administrative detention without trial in record numbers, Israeli assertions that those arrested are Hamas terrorists need not be proven in court. On October 1, there were 1,319 Palestinians in administrative detention, according to official figures. Two months later, the number had risen to 2,873. “The net is being cast very wide,” said Jessica Montell, head of the Israeli rights group HaMoked.
October 7 gave Israel cover to escalate. So the West Bank is now living a non-stop reality of impending doom.
Nour Odeh, political analyst and former spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority
Six Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody since the Hamas attack on October 7, according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, which also reported on allegations of a pattern of violence against prisoners.
Few Israelis question what the army is doing, partly because they are still focused on their own traumas. More than 1,100 Israelis, most of them civilians, were killed in the October 7 Hamas attack. It is considered as the deadliest day in Israeli history. Hamas and others took 240 hostages back to Gaza, with many of them still there at the time of this writing.
In response, Israel launched a devastating military campaign in Gaza with the stated goal of destroying Hamas. This has killed nearly 20,000 people, mostly women and children, according to Hamas officials. The numbers could not be independently verified, but the carnage has inflamed anger in the West Bank, where people identify with their fellow Palestinians and some have relatives among the fatalities.
It [settler violence] happens here and there and it can be dealt with.
Noam Arnon, spokesman for settlers in Hebron
In the West Bank, the death rate is also increasing, albeit at a slower pace. The Palestinian death toll this year in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is at its highest since UN officials began keeping a tally in 2005. As of December 10, 491 Palestinians were killed, at least eight of them by Israeli settlers, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Since October 7, the fatality rate has spiked dramatically, with 291 Palestinians killed, including 73 children, according to OCHA.
Eight Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks since October 7, according to OCHA.
Amidror is unfazed by the high fatality count and faults the Palestinians. “We are in a war. We kill all those holding weapons and posing a threat to our soldiers,” he said.
He dismisses the assertion that deaths at the hands of the army increase Palestinian motivation for revenge. “We heard such excuses until October 7. The lesson we have drawn [from the Hamas attack] is that if you don’t address terrorism, you get terrorism. So, we won’t allow terrorism against us,” he said.
When there is conflict and war, support for Hamas increases considerably. There is a belief that there is no choice but violence to achieve rights
Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research
Amidror said army raids and operations will continue “until we have cleansed the areas and most of the Hamas infrastructure is destroyed.”
However, Nour Odeh, a political analyst and former spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority, sees a different perspective. She believes Israel is waging a war on all Palestinians in the West Bank, not just Hamas, with the goal of dispossessing them.
“October 7 gave Israel cover to escalate,” she said. In Odeh’s view, Israel concluded it could act with impunity in the West Bank after it was not stopped from inflicting enormous casualties in Gaza. “Everything was normalized in Gaza. So the West Bank is now living a non-stop reality of impending doom.”
The sworn enemy of Hamas is a real, reliable, and viable political process.
Mati Steinberg, former adviser on Palestinian affairs to Israel’s Shin Bet security service
A significant part of Palestinian concern stems from settler violence, which has further intensified since October 7, with encouragement from the army and state, according to rights groups. Fifteen Palestinian herding communities comprising 1,257 people have been fully or partially emptied of their inhabitants due to settler violence since October 7, according to OCHA. In nearly half of the settler attacks, Israeli security forces accompanied or were seen as supporting the violent settlers, OCHA reports.
Despite the US and other countries imposing visa bans on violent settlers, attacks will likely only increase, in Odeh’s view. “This Israeli government will continue to enable and empower the settlers. It feels nothing stands in its way. In fact, ministers are themselves settlers. If nothing in the dynamic changes, there is no reason for Israel to stop. Things will just get worse,” she predicts.
Noam Arnon, a spokesman for settlers in Hebron, claims settler violence is minimal compared to Palestinian attacks. “It happens here and there and it can be dealt with,” he told TRENDS. Arnon argues that the matter is being exaggerated by Israeli left-wing groups, the US Democratic Party, and the media. “This is a campaign with antisemitic motives,” he asserts. “Its goal is to compare the settlers to Hamas.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian public opinion is hardening, contributing to further escalation. According to a poll released last week by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, support for Hamas rose from 12 percent in September to 44 percent when the poll was taken in late November and early December. Eighty-two percent of West Bankers surveyed said they think Hamas was right in launching the October 7 assault.
“When there is conflict and war, support for Hamas increases considerably. There is a belief that there is no choice but violence to achieve rights,” PCPSR director Khalil Shikaki told TRENDS. “People would support Hamas less if diplomacy and negotiations were seen as viable.”
Mati Steinberg, former adviser on Palestinian affairs to Israel’s Shin Bet security service, agrees. He believes the best outcome would be a serious peace initiative that offers Palestinians a political horizon. “The sworn enemy of Hamas is a real, reliable, and viable political process,” he said.
In Steinberg’s view, peace efforts can build on the Arab League peace plan from 2002, which Israel did not accept. This plan proposes Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights in exchange for the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab and Islamic countries.
However, the prospects for Israel to make such territorial concessions have become even more unlikely since October 7. Many Israelis argue that relinquishing control of the West Bank to pave the way for a Palestinian state would only make Israel vulnerable to further mass attacks. When asked about his views on a two-state solution, Amidror responded dismissively, “After October 7, does anyone think Israelis are so foolish as to agree to that?” he said.