Israel justifies occupation of West Bank by constant Hezbollah rocket attacks | El Diario Vasco

Israel’s biggest operation in the West Bank since the second intifada is entering its second week, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that the army has so far limited itself to “cutting the grass,” but that it will eventually need to “pull up the roots.” In the shadow of the war in Gaza, it is increasing its pressure on the occupied territories, without losing sight of the northern border, where Hezbollah launched more than seventy rockets, the largest attack in recent days, although it caused little damage.

“The rise of terrorism in Judea and Samaria (the biblical name for the West Bank) is an issue that we must focus on at all times. We are engaged in an attack to prevent terrorism,” said Gallant, referring to an operation that has already left 33 dead, 130 wounded and dozens arrested.

The army has deployed heavily in the cities and refugee camps in the north of the occupied territories, such as Jenin and Tulkarem, and plans to stay “as long as necessary” to end the threat posed by the various armed groups in the area, its commanders insist. These are groups affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have few and poorly equipped militants.

Israel is applying collective punishment to the entire population, imitating, on a smaller scale, the Gaza model. Some residents have been forcibly expelled from their homes, hospitals have been blocked, streets are washed away and other necessary infrastructure such as water and electricity are being destroyed. Eighty percent of the inhabitants of Jenin, a city of about 50,000 people, have been left without water, local authorities say.

“War zone”

The annexation of Judea and Samaria is the great dream of Zionist ultra-nationalism, which has become a key player in the most radical government in the history of Israel. Since its rise to power, military operations have multiplied and, after the attacks of October 7, the settlers are taking justice into their own hands with total impunity, as denounced by Israeli human rights organizations such as Peace Now. In the last eleven months, more than 600 Palestinians, including 150 minors, have been killed by soldiers and settlers, and more than 10,000 have been arrested.

Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman placed the Palestinian cities of Jenin and Nablus in the same category as the Gaza-Egypt border, declaring that “in the Philadelphia Corridor, in Jenin and Nablus, we must attack in order to inherit the land. ‘Inheritance’ is the term that should be used, not the term ‘occupation’ of the land.” Settlements minister Orit Strook went a step further, calling on the security cabinet to “declare a state of war” in the West Bank.

The desire of these radical ministers is to extend the war to all Palestinian territories and to weaken the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to the extreme in order to permanently remove the possibility of creating a Palestinian state. Itamar Ben Gvir, head of National Security, said that he is working “to stop negotiations with Hamas” and prevent a possible ceasefire.

Benjamin Netanyahu accepts these postulates and in his last television appearance he did not hesitate to show a map where the West Bank did not exist and Israel occupied the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.