Hebrew Opinion| The attack in Tel Aviv indicates a real danger of a wave of "terrorism" in the West Bank

By Amos Harel

The stabbing and car-ramming attack that took place in Raanana yesterday, which led to the death of a 79-year-old woman and the wounding of 17 citizens, was not surprising. Since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip, numerous attempts have been recorded to carry out attacks inside the Green Line, carried out by “saboteurs” from the West Bank. 

This happened with the encouragement of Hamas, without the need for direct guidance from it. 

The atmosphere in the West Bank is stormy, and there is no real need for a firearm to carry out independent plans for attacks. In most of these cases, attacks were curbed in the West Bank, also due to large arrest operations carried out by the Israeli army in Palestinian cities and camps.

The two "terrorists" who were arrested by security forces after their killing are relatives of a family from Hebron who lives in Israel illegally. One of them worked at a car wash station in Raanana, and carried a fake card stating that he was a resident of Rahat in the Negev. The two were prohibited from entering Israel for security reasons, namely entering Israel without permission.

This attack will provide a broad platform for discussions regarding the entry of Palestinian workers from the West Bank to work in Israel. In the right wing of the government coalition, there is strong opposition to the entry of workers during the war, for fear of attacks. But this argument is also the lesson needed from the “massacre” of October 7, when it became clear that workers from the Strip had been used to gather intelligence for a Hamas attack on the “Gaza envelope” settlements (as Haaretz reported last month). In the past, this fear did not prevent the heads of settlement councils from requesting and obtaining limited permissions from the security establishment for the entry of Palestinian workers to work for them, especially in industrial areas.

In fact, the "terrorists" from the West Bank who participated in attacks in recent years were, for the most part, present in Israel without permission. 

Moreover, now also, security sources claim, for the most part, that despite the difficult circumstances of the war, the entry of Palestinian workers from the West Bank should be allowed again, at least in a limited amount. Their argument is that the economic situation in the West Bank is getting worse and threatens the stability of the Palestinian Authority’s rule. In addition to cuts in the salaries of Palestinian Authority employees and Israel's freeze on transferring tax funds, under pressure from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The warning issued by the Shin Bet and the army to the political level is clear. While Gaza is burning, and in the absence of any effort to alleviate the economic crisis in power, there is a real danger that the West Bank will soon catch fire in a much greater way than we have seen since the beginning of the war. Despite everything that is happening in the Gaza Strip, the Authority still maintains security coordination with Israel, and from time to time, it stops activists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad on its territory. 

Under these circumstances, such a situation cannot continue for long, and may lead to an explosion that sweeps away armed activists from Fatah and the Palestinian security services. Now, especially after yesterday's attack, it is more difficult to see how the Prime Minister will respond to this warning, and whether he will risk agreeing to limited entry for Palestinian workers.

In the face of the increasing volume of attacks and warnings of attacks in and from the West Bank, the reserve forces that were called in more than 3 months ago, with the assistance of border guard units, stand up. Last month, a regular unit of the elite forces, the Musta'rab unit (Duvdovan), which had been withdrawn from the Gaza Strip for this purpose, was returned to the West Bank. This change in missions indicates the Central Region leadership’s fear of losing control of the situation in Gaza.