Are the latest Israeli raids proof that the West Bank is turning into Gaza?

Israelis carry a wounded soldier to a helicopter during raids in Jenin. Photo: MENACHEM KAHANA/AFP

For many years, the occupied West Bank was a relatively quiet replica of the blockaded Gaza Strip.

It is true that there was a lot of violence there, with Jewish settlers and Palestinian militants frequently attacking each other. friend, but few would describe the West Bank as an active war zone.

That is, until this week, when Israel launched the largest raid on the city of Jenin in 20 years, which could mark the beginning of a new and extremely bloody era in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ten Palestinians is a symptom of the failure of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the fading hope that the two-state solution will ever be realized.

Many of those fighting the Israelis in Jenin are very young people: a new generation of teenage combatants who have never in their lives witnessed a viable peace claim such as the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.

Since then, Israel has only expanded its settlement in the West Bank, which even its allies see as an obstacle to peace, while the Palestinian political leadership has grown weaker and more fragmented, leading to the emergence of powerful militant groups as rivals.< /p>< p>Many young Palestinians believe that violence is now the only way to resolve the conflict.

0407 Attack on Jenin

Critics of the Jenin operation say that even if the troops arrest or kill a huge number of militants, they will be destroyed almost immediately. replaced by other recruits. There are also fears that last year's frequent raids are simply creating a new generation of disgruntled Palestinians who will also take up arms.

The failure of the Palestinian Authority, which nominally controls the Jenin and Nablus areas, will also be cited as a key factor in the rapidly deteriorating situation.

All of this could lead to even more trouble for Israel, which is already worried that an air war on several fronts is only weeks away, with drones, rockets and missiles launched from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and maybe even Iraq.< /p>

Yes, the violence in the West Bank has clearly pleased the increasingly influential right-wing elements of Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition.

The air tactics deployed in Jenin this week are commonly used when Israel bombs the Gaza Strip, a besieged enclave controlled by Hamas, as was the case during the short wars in May 2021, August 2022 and April 2023.

< p> There are indications that militants in the northern West Bank are themselves working on the so-called «gasification» of the area, purchasing more powerful weapons.

Protests in Jenin as Israeli forces continue to strike. Photo: Getty Images

Israeli commanders have hinted that this week's operation in Jenin is only the first of many operations of this magnitude, although it is not clear what its ultimate goal will be.

There is no end in sight, and there is no appetite for serious peace talks on both sides things can only get worse.

However, the operation also appears to have a political element. For weeks, far-right elements of Netanyahu's coalition capable of toppling his government have been demanding a tougher stance on militants in the West Bank. They were clearly delighted from the escalation to the air attacks.

But the current spiral of violence is not only fueled by tit-for-tat violence between settlers and soldiers on the Israeli side and Palestinian militants on the other.

There is deep despair over the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and in the absence of any serious peace talks for decades, many young Palestinians believe that violence is now the only way to resolve the conflict.< /p>