By Shu Meng, Song Yun
Israel launched a massive military operation in Jenin on the West Bank in early July, involving about 1,000 soldiers, assault UAVs, helicopters, tanks, and other weapons and equipment, which was called by many critics the largest military operation by Israeli forces on the West Bank in the past nearly 20 years.
The operation was targeted at the Palestinian armed forces in Jenin to prevent the region from becoming a new anti-Israel base. Data from Israel show that in the past two years, about 50 shooting incidents against Israelis are related with Jenin, where a lot of anti-Israel militants gather, who have posed a serious threat to the authority of Israeli government and the security of its people. In the latest military operation, Israel Defense Forces aimed at places where Palestinian armed forces are concentrated and weapon depots. They also carried out air raids on the joint operations center in Jenin shared by various factions.
The operation is a reiteration of Israel's tough-line policy against Palestine. Recent years have seen Israel promoting its hard-right policy and taking an increasingly tough line toward Palestine. Its hard-right coalition government has kept expanding the Jewish settlements, which leads to a sharp increase in violence on the West Bank. On June 20, a shooting incident against Jews near a settlement prompted Tel Aviv to announce its plan to build another 1,000 apartments there. The heating up of conflict between the two sides has added more strain to their tension.
The latest military operation may be followed by some new trends in the Palestine-Israel hostility. In addition to Gaza, Jenin will become another key region of confrontation and conflict. Previously, direct conflicts between the two sides usually take place in the Gaza Strip, with six large-scale conflicts in the past decade. But in 2023 alone, Israel has attacked Jenin three times. Apart from traditional factions such as the Islamic Jihad and Hamas, Jenin in the past two years has seen the emergence of new armed factions that are mainly comprised of young people who are good at using social media for publicity, and whose attacks against Israel are more covert and scattered compared with traditional factions. When the military operation drew to an end, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation in Jenin won't be a one-time thing, implying the possibility of more to come.
The operation has caused immense casualties in Palestine and further aroused the Palestinians' protest and hatred. Data from Palestine's health authorities indicate that the conflict has killed at least 12 Palestinians and injured more than 140, with 40 in serious conditions. After the surprise attack, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that they will stop all engagement and contact with Israel. Two days after the Israeli troops left Jenin, five rocket projectiles were fired from Gaza Strip and landed within Israeli territory, and an Israeli died in a shooting incident near a Jewish settlement on the West Bank. The seemingly ceaseless violent conflicts have pushed even farther away the prospect of peace talks between the two sides.
If neither Palestine nor Israel can find a breach point for détente soon, it's possible that more people living on the West Bank will turn to support the pro-war forces, which may plan more attacks against Israel, only to court fiercer retaliation in return, and skirmishes may very well trigger larger-scale conflicts and confrontation. The vicious cycle of violence that Palestine and Israel find themselves deeply mired in has made ease of tension impossible between Israel and other Arabic countries, thus leaving the Middle East situation in limbo.
(The authors are from The Middle East Studies Institute, Shanghai International Studies University)
