With increasing indications of a serious plan to turn the West Bank into a second version of the Gaza Strip, in terms of destruction, deportation, killing, arrest and abuse, voices are rising warning the political and military leaderships against this trend, and saying that this behavior cannot remain in one direction, with the Israeli attack on the cities and camps of the West Bank, but will very soon turn into a “two-way street” and short-range rockets, such as Katyushas and others, may become capable of bombing Tel Aviv.

These warnings came from experts who spent many years in military service in the Palestinian territories, about turning the West Bank into a second version of the Gaza Strip, following the scorched earth left behind by the Israeli army in the past nine days. Since August 28, when the army launched its special campaign in the West Bank, which was considered the largest escalation since the second intifada, 39 Palestinians have been killed and about 150 injured, which raises the death toll in the West Bank to 691 dead and about 5,700 injured, since the beginning of the war on Gaza, according to the latest figures announced by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The campaign included Al-Far'a refugee camp and the neighboring city of Tubas, Nour Shams camp and the city of Tulkarm, Jenin camp and city and some neighborhoods of Hebron, Al-Auja camp near Jericho, some neighborhoods of Nablus and Balata camp there. The army withdrew from these areas several times, but returned to them again with new operations that included ground invasions with tanks and armored vehicles and even bombing with fighter jets and drones.

The Air Force boasted that it had carried out 300 sorties and assassinated 20 Palestinians from the air. It brought giant D9 bulldozers with it to every invasion to destroy infrastructure and demolish homes and shops.

The heaviest casualties occurred in Jenin, where 21 people were killed, including Mohammed Zubeidi, the son of prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi, who the intelligence service itself admitted was neither a leader nor an official in the resistance groups. His killing was part of revenge against his father, who managed to escape from the Israeli Gilboa prison. The Palestinian Civil Defense announced today (Friday) that the Israeli army destroyed about 25 kilometers of streets and neighborhoods in the city of Jenin and its camp in the military operation that lasted about 10 days.

“Last week was the deadliest for Palestinian civilians in the West Bank since November,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a post on its X account. “As the war in Gaza continues, violence and destruction in the West Bank are increasing by the hour. This is unacceptable and must stop now,” the agency added.

But all that the Israeli government, the army leadership and the intelligence services did was not enough for the extreme right. In a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded that the goals of the war on Gaza include eliminating Hamas and the armed Palestinian organizations in the West Bank as well. The letter stated: “Following dangerous assumptions, due to which we are currently in a war on several fronts, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) has become one of the war fronts. Unfortunately, the assumption still exists almost entirely on this front, and the movement of Palestinian Authority residents on the roads is allowed freely, and the terrorist organizations are in a process of significantly strengthening their power. This is expressed in the sharp increase in the recent attempts of various terrorist organizations to carry out bombings by various means, while a shooting attack took place on Sunday, which led to the killing of three Israeli police officers at the Tarqumiya crossing.”

On Friday, the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz published an editorial warning against turning the West Bank into the Gaza Strip. It said: “The methods of operation are the same, and so are the means of fighting. The goals are also similar, and the results will not be long in coming. Israel will soon wake up to another Gaza, this time on its eastern border, with all that implies.”

The newspaper quoted experts and insiders as saying that since the outbreak of the war, Israel has changed its policy in the West Bank, and its Palestinian residents are facing a new reality, harsher than the previous one.

The first step taken was a complete closure and the cancellation of all work permits in Israel. Freedom of movement was reduced to a minimum, as access to places of work inside the West Bank was restricted, and the economic situation deteriorated further. Then the Israeli army began to adopt new combat methods, some of which had until then only been used in Gaza and Lebanon. Helicopters and air force planes became the main tool against wanted and innocent people, in quantities not seen since the Second Intifada. Israel also ignores the intention of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to visit Gaza, a visit that would bring a solution to the management of the Rafah crossing, and it continues to harm the Authority’s budget. The political strategy in practice is to push forward with the annexation of the West Bank, and the occupation is governed by international judicial bodies.