The Israeli security establishment has begun intensive discussions on the possibility of conducting an extensive military operation in Judea and Samaria against the Palestinian terrorist groups following the shooting attack on May 30th in which Meir Tamari was murdered in the area of the Harmesh settlement.
The attack was carried out by the “Rapid Reaction” unit belonging to the “Tulkarm Battalion” which is a joint terrorist body of the Islamic Jihad and the Fatah movement, this group was founded by Seif Abu Libda from the Nur Shams refugee camp who was killed by the IDF last year.
Later, the new founders of the group were joined by Amir Abu Khadija who was an officer in the presidential guard of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, he was also killed by the IDF.
Islamic Jihad sources say that the murder of Israeli citizen Meir Tamari is part of the organization’s revenge response to the IDF’s activity in the Noor Shams refugee camp and the assassination of the organization’s military elite in the Gaza Strip during Operation Shield and Arrow.
The Israeli security establishment is concerned about the spread of armed terrorist groups throughout Judea and Samaria that are equipped with large quantities of weapons and ammunition. There are about 20 armed terrorist groups throughout Judea and Samaria that carry out attacks. The weapons are flowed into Judea and Samaria through smuggling through the border with Jordan. Iran is financing the purchasing smuggling of the weapons.
The strategy of the armed terrorist groups is to conduct a war of attrition against the IDF in all of Judea and Samaria and to employ as many military forces as possible, Iran sees Judea and Samaria as another front against Israel as part of its strategy of “uniting the fronts”.
The Shin Bet supports conducting an extensive military operation in Judea and Samaria against the terrorist infrastructure, security sources say that this is an inevitable process to stop the terrorist monster that is growing day by day and pushing the PA security forces out of large areas in Judea and Samaria.
The PA chairman rejected the American security plan
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas continues his policy he started about a year and a half ago of not entering into a conflict with the armed terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria as long as they do not pose a direct threat to the Muqataa in Ramallah, even though he has under his command Palestinian security forces numbering about 30 thousand armed men.
According to senior officials in the Fatah movement, Mahmoud Abbas rejected the security plan offered to him by the Biden administration against the new terrorist groups because it did not include real guarantees that the IDF would stop the entry of its forces into Area A.
The plan was prepared by American General Mike Fenzel, the plan stipulates that several thousand new security personnel will be recruited for the PA. They will be trained and equipped with weapons and deployed in the northern West Bank to fight against the armed terrorist groups.
Sources in Fatah say that the American plan was intended to eliminate the armed groups in the West Bank that have tremendous support on the Palestinian street and the support of all Palestinian factions, but Mahmoud Abbas avoided it on the grounds that it would lead to a civil war.
Despite the security meetings that took place in Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh at the initiative of the US to strengthen the power of tha PA in the territories of Judea and Samaria, the American security plan was not discussed at all, a senior Fatah official says of it that it is a “baby that was born dead”.
Akram Rajoub, governor of Jenin on behalf of the PA, said on May 29th to the newspaper “A-Shark Al-Awsat” that he only heard about the American security plan through the media.
He accused the Israeli government of weakening the PA’s power, according to him, the PA’s security forces estimate that the security situation in Judea and Samaria will only escalate.
A senior political official says that the Israeli security establishment is preparing for an escalation on the ground, if, God forbid, there is an attack with many casualties in Judea and Samaria, the Israeli government will have no choice but to launch a major military operation despite the pressures of the Biden administration, which has so far succeeded in delaying the launch of the operation.
Despite the increase in shooting attacks in Judea and Samaria, the majority of Palestinian residents in Judea and Samaria are not interested in an armed intifada that could cause them heavy economic damage and the cessation of work in Israel.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad are finding it difficult to drag the Fatah movement in the West Bank into taking a public position calling for an armed intifada against Israel, in contrast to the Gaza Strip where there is a joint headquarter of all the Palestinian factions that organizes the terrorism against Israel, after all, in Judea and Samaria there is a great division between the factions and no joint headquarters of the factions that coordinates the terrorist activity against Israel.
