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Prioritizing the West Bank
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Neomi Neumann - The IDF's operation aimed at eradicating the local terrorist infrastructure in the northern West Bank, begun on Aug. 27, is the largest in the area since 2002. According to the Israel Security Agency (ISA), 1,245 attacks emanated from the northern West Bank over the past year, 255 of them categorized as "significant." There were also 435 attacks against IDF targets. Since Oct. 7, twenty-four Israelis have been killed in such attacks. Starting in 2021, various terrorist "battalions" were formed, mainly in the northern refugee camps. The weak Palestinian Authority rarely entered these areas. According to ISA estimates, about fifteen battalions from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian factions are currently operating in the West Bank. Each has dozens of fighters as well as commanders, financiers, and sabotage experts, resulting in attacks that are increasingly sophisticated and daring. Israel's restrictions on the PA since the Gaza war began - particularly its withholding of the Gaza portion of the tax revenues it normally transfers to the PA and the revocation of 160,000 permits to work in Israel - have harmed the standard of living. Yet the general public in the West Bank has not engaged in wide popular protest. In recent months there has been a decline in the scope of incidents involving stone throwing, firebombs, demonstrations, and riots. Nevertheless, Hamas is still perceived as restoring Palestinian honor by fighting Israel and is therefore popular with the public, particularly young people. Today, many IEDs manufactured in the northern West Bank contain large quantities of explosives, which are smuggled from Iran to Syria and from there through the border with Jordan. In parallel to winning the war in Gaza and establishing a stable postwar situation, Israel will need to work intensively to eradicate terrorism in the West Bank and prevent it from spilling over into Israel. That is why it launched its latest military operation: to prevent the West Bank from becoming another front in the war. The writer, a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute, served as head of the research unit at the Israel Security Agency.