A Desperate Netanyahu Turns The IDF's Sights Toward The West Bank

blueapples on X


The fallout from the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreed upon by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has left the prime minister's reputation in tatters and mired his political future in uncertainty. As extreme rightwing factions of the ruling coalition in the Knesset have begun to abandon Netanyahu over the ceasefire, he finds himself grasping at straws to retain control of his office. During a national address following the ceasefire's passage, Netanyahu went as far as to categorize the agreement as "temporary" and even stated he had the blessing of US President Donald Trump to continue the war if Israel deems Hamas has breached its terms. In an effort to appease the bloodthirst of his supporters who have threatened him with political subterfuge if the war in Gaza does not resume, Netanyahu has turned the IDF's sights toward the West Bank.

Just days into its ceasefire with Hamas, the IDF has launched a military operation in the West Bank that has claimed the lives of at least 8 civilian casualties, injuring dozens more. The deaths occurred during an IDF raid in the West Bank City of Jenin. That raid comes barely one week after an IDF drone strike in Jenin killed another 6 Palestinians. Hamza and Reds Bsharat, cousins aged 10 and 8, were among the civilians killed by the bombing before their family's homes were raided during the latest escalation of Israel's military occupation of the West Bank.

Since the start of the war against Hamas following October 7th, 2023, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 831 Palestinians in the West Bank, according the the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israel's official figures indicate that 28 Israels have been killed in the occupied territory in that same time frame.

Although the West Bank is not governed by Hamas but instead by the Palestinian Authority, Netanyahu has justified his decision to increase the IDF's incursions into the territory under the pretense that it is meant to eradicate Iranian-proxy terrorist cells from the area. The target of Israel's raids has been focused on the Jenin Battalion, a jihadist militant group closely aligned with Hamas that has found itself at odds with the Palestinian Authority governing the West Bank and Israel alike. Earlier this week, the Palestinian Authority and the Jenin Battalion reached an agreement ending a 6-week siege on a camp held by the militant group.

The recent increase of IDF attacks in the West Bank follows a trajectory of increasingly frequent operations aimed against the Jenin Battlalion going back years. In the early weeks of the war in Gaza, the IDF killed the Jenin Battalion's commander Mohammed Zubeidi in an operation that arrested 17 other militants and seized weapons and other military equipment. In February 2024, the IDF arrested a senior Hamas operative named Omar Fayed in Jenin as part of a counterterrorsism operation that arrested 18 other suspected terrorists. The increased activity of militant groups in Jenin during this period who were opposed by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority became the impetus of a US-backed plan to facilitate increased cooperation between the IDF and specialized PA security forces like those that led the 6-week siege in Jenin.

In early 2023, former US Secretary Of State Antony Blinken put forward a proposal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to increase cooperation with the IDF. The plan was drafted by Lt. Gen. Michael Fenzel, who brought the proposal to both the Palestinian Authority and Israeli government. Although the Israeli government agreed to Fenzel's plan, it was unwilling to make concessions asked by the Palestinian Authority including the reduction of IDF operations in the West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus. This led to the Palestinian Authority rejecting the proposal.

With the West Bank now taking centerstage in the Netanyahu regime's military efforts, it is unlikely that any cooperation between the IDF and PA would be revisited. In stark contrast to the political climate between Israel and the PA when cooperation between the two was discussed in early 2023, the diplomatic relationship between Israel and the PA has deteriorated into a seemingly irreversible state after the events of October 7th, 2023 and subsequent 15-month long war in Gaza. The West Bank now serves as the last hope of Netanyahu to continue his military efforts to maintain popular support to continue as Prime Minister Of Israel.

Israel's efforts to take further control of the West Bank have ironically been accelerated by the presidential administration of Donald Trump, the man who brokered the ceasefire deal with Hamas. In one of his first acts as the 47th President Of The United States, Trump revoked an executive order signed by his predecessor Joe Biden that put sanctions on Israeli groups who were expanding illegal settlements in the West Bank. The lifting of those sanctions foreshadows increased hostility between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank.

Those hostilities may soon serve as the catalyst for an increasingly desperate Benjamin Netanyahu to capitalize on the escalating conflict in the West Bank in order to regain the support of the factions who have left his ruling coalition in protest of the ceasefire in Gaza. Netanyahu's apparent eagerness to turn the IDF's focus onto the West Bank demonstrates how the ceasefire in Gaza is not a portent of a longstanding peace.