Israeli writer Gideon Levy began his article in Haaretz by describing the miserable situation in the West Bank, with Israel tearing it apart, oppressing the Palestinians, killing them and dragging them mercilessly, describing it as the most difficult period the Palestinians have witnessed since 2002.

He added that tens of thousands of acres have been confiscated and stolen over the past 11 months; there is hardly a hill in the West Bank without an Israeli flag or a settlement outpost that will one day be a city. The roadblocks have also returned in full force, and you cannot move from one place to another in the West Bank without encountering them and waiting there, and being humiliated for hours. You cannot plan anything in a reality in which at least 150,000 people have lost their livelihoods, after job opportunities in Israel were completely closed to them. Everyone has been punished since the October 7 attack. Eleven months without pay leave their mark.

The Awakening of Monsters

He said that all of this made the "monsters wake up from their slumber" and caused the return of suicide bombers. He reported that in recent weeks he visited Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Hebron in the West Bank. He said that although the West Bank played no role in the October 7, 2023 attack, it woke up after it, with its three million Palestinians, to a new reality - not because the previous reality was humane or legitimate - brimming with a passion for revenge and seizing opportunities, and characterized by the merciless pressure of the Israeli boot on the neck of the West Bank.

Levy expressed his surprise at the explanation given by Israeli analysts for the violent Palestinian resistance raising its head in the West Bank, describing it as surprising, as they attribute it to "Iranian money", saying that they explain everything with the Iranian octopus, and he mocked that by saying "the Palestinians are willing to commit suicide to get some money."

Intensified conflict is coming

He continued commenting on what Israeli analysts are saying, saying, "How easy it is to attribute everything to Iran. The Israelis love to do that. There is a devil, and he is Iranian, and he is responsible for everything."

He stressed that an intensive conflict would be the possible and understandable development given what has happened in the West Bank and Gaza over the past 11 months, adding that the only surprise is that it has not happened in the past months.

He pointed out that what is permissible in terms of killing and humiliation in Gaza is now permissible in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers have internalized this fact, and their behavior toward the Palestinians has changed accordingly, and their motto is, "If we are not in Gaza, at least let us act as if we were there." Ask any Palestinian what he has been through. There has never been a greater despair than they are now.

Gideon Levy concluded his article by asking: After all this, do you expect there to be no "terrorism"?

Source: Haaretz+Aljazeera