The tight blockade on the city of Nablus that lasted for almost two weeks succeeds in stopping the terrorists from leaving the city to carry out shooting attacks on the main roads , but it does not provide an adequate solution for a thorough treatment of the problem of the terrorist group that arose in the city and is called the “Lions’ Den”.
The decision has already been made at the political and security level to eliminate this phenomenon, but it seems that Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz are delaying the implementation of the decision until after the Knesset elections.
PA sources estimate that they fear the consequences of a major military operation in the city of Nablus now on the election process because the IDF may pay a heavy price in the lives of its soldiers.
There is no other way to eliminate the “Lions’ Den” group other than imposing a curfew on the entire city of Nablus, bringing forces the size of a brigade into the city and spreading special forces into the Kasbah of Nablus where the terrorists are hiding.
The IDF should operate in the old city of Nablus thoroughly and cleanse it of terrorists cells just as it did in 1989 in the first intifada when it cleansed Nablus of the terrorists of the “Black Panther” and Red Eagle” squads”
This week the “Lions’ Den” group called on the residents of Nablus to carry weapons, get on the roofs, go to the streets and mosques and prepare for violent confrontations, it was afraid that large forces of the IDF would enter the city of Nablus and kill its memnbers.
The entire city of Nablus was under tension, the IDF showed caution and did not take any special activity apart from tightening the blockade on the city so that terrorists cannot leave it to carry out shooting attacks on the main traffic routes.
The “Lions’ Den” group has taken over the public agenda and the street obeys its instructions, such as regarding the announcement of the general strike, which undermines the stability of the Palestinian government.
Popular support for the activities of this group further erodes the PA’s precarious position on the Palestinian street.
However, the chairman of the PA Abu Mazen does not have the political courage to enter into a frontal military confrontation with the “Lions’ Den” group, even though the PA’s security forces can eliminate it, and this is for fear that this will lead to a civil war.
The IDF was dragged into a war of attrition
The arrest operation announced by the IDF does not break the wave of terrorism, it is an operation of specific actions in different places according to the directives of the political echelon which fears a large-scale frontal military confrontation with the terrorist organizations in the northern West Bank with an emphasis on the cities of Jenin and Nablus.
So far this is a security policy of “extinguishing fires”.
This operation has successes, but they are spot-on, it arouses anger among the Palestinians, but the IDF has lost its deterrence, the rapid entries in a short period of a few hours into the Arab towns where the terrorists are hiding are interpreted by the Palestinians as Israel’s fear of the terrorist organizations and the unwillingness to stay in the area as long as necessary to clear it of terrorists and unwillingness for a military confrontation.
Instead of fighting terrorism widely, the IDF chose to try and push the Palestinian Authority to do the work in its place, this will not happen, if the IDF does not hurry to act, the “lone wolves” of Palestinian terrorism and the “Lions’ Den” group will drag the West Bank territories into an all-out armed intifada.
The young Palestinian generation that participates in the acts of terrorism has lost faith in the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, it did not experience the events of the second intifada in 2000 and it lives in the illusion that it has the power to exhaust the IDF forces, therefore, there is no escape from using a very hard hand against the acts of terrorism it carries out, the security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority cannot prevent these acts of terrorism.
The IDF is deployed with 25 battalions throughout the West Bank for the operation to stop terrorism and it is assisted by the Shin Bet and the IDF’s intelligence to fight terrorism, but this is not enough, the IDF needs to bring its best forces to the West Bank front and embark on a major operation in northern West Bank to eradicate the armed terrorist groups , this action should have been done a year ago, but the Bennett and Lapid governments avoided it for political reasons.
The security focus should be on the armed terrorist groups without imposing collective punishments on the majority of the population and at the same time allow the tens of thousands of Palestinian workers to leave and work in Israel.
Israeli embarrassment and confusion
There are two schools of thought in the Israeli security system, one claims that this is the beginning of a new armed intifada and the other believes that this is a wave of terrorism that will pass and subside if the IDF and the Shin Bet handle it properly because the majority of the population in the West Bank is not interested in an intifada and the Fatah movement does not take an active part in the current wave.
The young Palestinian generation that participates in terrorist activity advocates the way of the armed struggle against Israel, in the absence of a political horizon and negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and the failure of the Oslo Accords, it tries to bring about achievements in the way of terrorism and violence through groups or individuals, not necessarily through the institutionalized terrorist activity of organizations.
The general atmosphere in the West Bank is that the Palestinian Authority is no longer leading the way to a better future, the top of the Palestinian Authority is busy with the battle of succession and tainted by corruption, it is busy with political survival.
The Palestinian Authority is seen on the Palestinian street as a “contractor for Israel’s security affairs”.
Israel is being dragged into a war of attrition in the West Bank territories, the IDF needs to bring large forces into the northern West Bank and defeat the terrorist groups, otherwise terrorism will only increase and reach Israeli cities.
The weak point of the new terrorist groups in the West Bank is that they have no leadership and no clear strategic goal but to harm maximum of Israeli soldiers and civilians, these groups must not be allowed to unite, arrests and killings of individual terrorists are not enough, the IDF must act on a large scale, especially in the northern West Bank against the terrorist infrastructure, the Palestinian Authority will not do this in its place.
