The Palestinian terrorist monster that arose in Judea and Samaria immediately after the “Guardian of the Walls” operation in May 2021 by the Islamic Jihad organization with the support of Iran, continues to grow and get stronger, senior security officials confirm that Prime Ministers Bennett and Lapid were wrong when they did not act more strongly against the new terrorist groups that arose in the north Samaria.
About 20 armed terrorist groups are already operating in the territory itself and the terrorism has also begun to spread to areas in the central West Bank and in the south.
These terrorist groups attack on a daily basis by firing at IDF roadblocks as well as IDF patrols and Israeli settlers moving along the main roads in Samaria.
The armed groups also confront by firing with IDF soldiers who enter the centers of Palestinian cities for the purpose of arresting wanted terrorists, recently the use of explosive charges against IDF soldiers has increased and laboratories for the production of these charges have been established in the area.
The IDF and the Shin Bet confirm that the nightly arrest operation carried out by the IDF is not enough to thwart the terrorist activities of the armed groups, what is required according to military sources is an extensive military operation on the scale of a division that will take over the cities of Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm and the refugee camps adjacent to them and cleanse them of the nests of terrorism in a thorough house-to-house operation, such an operation can last for about two to three weeks.
A senior security official emphasizes the need to change the consciousness of the young Palestinian generation that is being recruited into the new armed groups, this is a generation that did not experience the second intifada and does not know the true power of the IDF, according to him, the IDF must recapture the main cities of the Palestinians in northern Samaria for a limited period and rebuild the deterrence.
In these cities there are thousands of illegal weapons, huge amounts of ammunition and laboratories for the production of explosive devices.
The senior security official warns that if the political echelon does not make a decision soon on an extensive IDF military operation in Samaria, this will be interpreted by the terrorist organizations as weakness and terrorism will begin to move into the main cities in Israel itself.
He noted that the new terrorist groups are also trying to establish infrastructure in Samaria for the production of rockets with which they plan to attack Israeli cities.
The new terrorist groups are also challenging the rule of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and are planning to overthrow him, they are also supposed to participate in the battle of succession after Mahmoud Abbas steps down from the political stage.
Political officials in Jerusalem claim that the IDF’s extensive military operation in northern Samaria is being delayed for two main reasons.
- Opposition from the American administration, American Defense Minister Lloyd Austin made it clear to Defense Minister Yoav Galant, with whom he met in Brussels late last week, that such a military operation would further weaken the PA and that Israel must tighten security cooperation with the PA in order to strengthen it.
In practice, the PA has lost all its security control in northern Samaria and the chairman of the PA refuses to have a military confrontation with the armed groups.
- Israeli concern that an extensive military operation in northern Samaria will lead to a new round of fighting on the border of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas sent a warning to Israel on this matter last week through Egyptian intelligence.
Iran continues to strengthen the armed groups in Judea and Samaria through the Islamic Jihad organization, which transfers them money and weapons that are smuggled through Jordan to northern Samaria.
Ziad Al-Nakhala, the Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad visited Iran last weekend at the head of a delegation and met, among other things, with senior members of the “Revolutionary Guards”.
He delivered a massage to Israel saying that “the Palestinian resistance with the help of Iran will bring to the destruction of Israel.”
Most of the Palestinian street supports the continuation of the armed resistance to Israel, the security meetings between Israel and the PA that took place in Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh with the aim of strengthening the PA have been stopped.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas continues to lose the support of the Palestinian street, a Palestinian public opinion poll conducted recently by the Palestinian Center for Political Studies in Ramallah shows that 71 percent of Palestinians support the establishment of armed groups such as the “Lions’ Den” group and the “Jenin Battalion” group, 86 percentage believe that the members of these groups should not be arrested. 51 percent of the respondents estimate that the security escalation will increase in preparation for a third intifada.
The political echelon will do well if it decides to embark on an extensive military operation against the armed terrorist groups in northern Samaria, surprisingly even before the upcoming holiday of sacrifice (Id al-Adha), Israel succeeds in the war on terror only when it takes the initiative and lands a pre-emptive strike on the enemy, just as it did in the operation “Shield and Arrow” against the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.
