January 30, 2025
By Nasser Kandil
• The political and military leadership of the occupying entity did not hesitate to act according to the outcomes of the war, which speaks of a resounding failure to end the resistance in Gaza and Lebanon. They quickly turned to what they considered organising the internal front, with the West Bank as its main arena, shifting focus to the security of “Little Israel” after talk of “Greater Israel” became mere illusions. This is because those who failed to occupy the Gaza Strip, which does not exceed a few hundred square kilometers, and impose control over it – ultimately signing an agreement stipulating a complete withdrawal from the Strip – and who did the same in southern Lebanon, are not qualified to speak about an expansion on a scale akin to the slogan “Your land, O Israel, from the Euphrates to the Nile”, which would require occupying hundreds of thousands of square kilometers.
• In the West Bank, the entire occupying army is fighting with all its capabilities, alongside hundreds of thousands of armed settlers, and with the cooperation of the Palestinian Authority’s security apparatuses. The goal is to hunt down hundreds of resistance fighters who have made the Jenin camp their stronghold, supported by a network of cities and camps where the fighters move and protect one another. For months, the occupation has tried to break the wall of the resistance and has failed.
• The people of the West Bank have seen the scenes from Gaza and know what awaits them. The displacement of the West Bank is an old yet renewed project, where settlement expansion has left no viable geography for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The leaders of the entity openly declare that annexing the West Bank is a serious option and that ending its status as occupied Palestinian land is their aim. Therefore, the conflict waged by the occupation and imposed on the Palestinians becomes existential and zero-sum, with no room for a halfway settlement. It must end with the victory of one side and the defeat of the other.
• The entity will not retreat from its harsh war in the West Bank, nor will the resistance fighters. It is not far-fetched to predict that we will witness even harsher episodes as settlers join the attempt to seize Palestinian lands and properties, attacking all aspects of Palestinian life. The Palestinians, in turn, will not delay in forming a line of defense and protection for the resistance. The West Bank will witness a new kind of war between settlements and Palestinian cities and towns, one that will shape the course of the future.
