Adel Misk: the West Bank is the 'new front' of Netanyahu's war in Gaza
The Israeli military launched an operation in Jenin, dubbed Iron Wall, resulting in a dozen deaths with 35 wounded. In Tel Aviv, a man is killed after carrying out a knife attack that left four people wounded. General Herzi Halevi resigns over 7 October, backing an independent inquiry. For a Palestinian activist, Israel is imposing “total closure” on the West Bank to settle the score.
Milan (AsiaNews) – A “new front is open" in the West Bank in the war that the Israelis have launched against the Palestinians, this according to Adel Misk, a neurologist and Palestinian activist.
This front runs from Jenin, scene of yesterday’s massive Iron Wall military operation, to Jericho, which is "under siege” with “almost total closure, blockades around the main cities, including Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus, unable to communicate with each other.”
Speaking to AsiaNews following yesterday's attack by Israeli forces that "caused at least 10 deaths,” he said that Israeli leaders “have clearly said that things with the West Bank will be settled, to overcome all forms of resistance, especially in the Palestinian camps starting with Jenin,” which is becoming a “second Gaza”.
“The excuse is to stop Iranian supplies,” he explained, “but this is only a pretext to continue what they have not yet finished in Gaza”, which the recent truce has only frozen. Ostensibly, the goal is to “wipe out Iranian influence in the area, like in Syria with the fall of Assad, in Lebanon with the weakening of Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza".
For over a year, while the eyes of the international community were focused on Gaza (or Syria and Lebanon), what was happening in the West Bank "was considered marginal”, the Palestinian doctor and activist noted.
In fact, "army actions and settler attacks continued, but they were ignored because Gaza captured the attention for the number of deaths, the devastation, the constant elimination of the greatest number of Palestinians and their assets.
"After all, 15 months of siege and aid blockade have made the emergency worse. Today those who are trying to return to their home are no longer able even to recognise their homes, neighbourhoods. They are unable to move around because of the destruction.”
With efforts underway to preserve the fragile peace Gaza agreed by Israel and Hamas with the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, Israel’s military is tightening its grip on the increasingly isolated West Bank and its population.
The Iron Wall operation has already caused a dozen deaths and over 35 wounded. For experts, this is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's way to pay off the religious and radical right, first and foremost Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“The latter is responsible for the real invasion of weapons, with barely adult men going around armed with machine guns, even in shopping malls,” Adel Misk explained. “At least 200,000 people are armed. Even Red Cross workers have machine guns and rifles. Israel's dream is to invade Gaza and create settlements and, at the same time, control the West Bank which is now surrounded by dozens of settlements, settlers and armed gangs.”
Meanwhile, terror swept through Tel Aviv last night when a man stabbed at least four people, before being "neutralised", i.e. killed by Israeli security forces.
According to The Times of Israel, the attacker was a 29-year-old Moroccan living in the United States. Upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, he was granted entry by border control, this according to reports from Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency.
The man allegedly began stabbing passers-by, before being shot by off-duty members of a security forces unit. At least one of the injured people is said to be in critical conditions, with a knife wound to the neck.
Also yesterday, IDF Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said that he would resign on 6 March, the highest official to quit following the attack on 7 October 2023. Major General Yaron Finkelman, head of Israel's Southern Command, which oversaw operations in Gaza, also resigned.
Taking responsibility for the failures that allowed Hamas to attack and kill 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, triggering the war in Gaza during which 47,000 died, Finkelman said that he hopes his resignation will favour an independent inquiry into the facts, something Prime Minister Netanyahu has always rejected, saying he had nothing to apologise or account for.
For Adel Misk, a former face of The Parents Circle, an association that brings together a few hundred Israelis and Palestinians who lost family members in the conflict, “Everything is linked.”
"The agreement is divided into three phases, until the summer, provided it is not broken before. It is too fragile and stretched out over time to be believed, but let’s hope.”
At present, "it is hard to think of a future, even near future, because the moves of the new US President Donald Trump and the American administration remain to be seen” against a backdrop in which the two-state solution seems increasingly remote.
Against this background, Palestinian leaders are hanging on to the “promises” of Arab mediators, Qatar or Saudi Arabia, which must "set the price for normalisation with Israel. What is certain is that after 15 months the real victim is the Palestinian people, for whom the future does not bode well" and the situation, from Ramallah to Gaza, “can collapse at any time.”
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22/06/2023 20:10
04/05/2017 17:52
