Spotlight: Israel on an all-out war cry

Spotlight: Israel on an all-out war cry

By Venkatesh Raghavan*

There is an all-out war cry in Israel. Terror strikes from both sides – Israelis and Palestinians – are claiming lives in the region. In yesterday’s terrorist attack against Israelis near Eli in the West Bank, four individuals were killed. The attack came right after an attack on the Jenin camp, where the Israelis used an Apache helicopter against civilians. Six people were killed, including a 14-year-old girl there.

The United States, today (IST) took note of troubling reports of extremist settler violence against Palestinian civilians, including the death of a Palestinian child and other injuries. There have been rising levels of violence in the West Bank in recent months. Today, there was an attack on a Palestinian village, Turmus Ayya where most of the property is owned by US citizens who live in America part of the time, live in the West Bank part of the time. The US responded stating that any kind of activity or actions that will incite tensions “will take us away from our ultimate goal of a negotiated two-state solution”. 

The recently installed far-right government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel has given a resounding war cry. It pounded the hotbed of the Palestinian resistance movement, namely the Jenin camp with air raids from combat helicopters early this week. Casualties on the Palestinian side mounted to six, while the Israeli army claimed six of their soldiers were injured with one of them in a serious condition.

Today Netanyahu said he was planning to go ahead with a thousand new homes in Eli despite the US condemnation of the settlement expansion as it feels that unilateral actions such as this will only incite tensions and undermine the prospect of a two-state solution.

Israel’s armed forces have been engaged in high-intensity strikes increasingly since January this year, with nearly 170 Palestinians reportedly killed in repeated strikes from the Israeli militia, making it an unprecedented escalation for decades.

Besides helicopter drones, the army has also employed live ammunition and stun grenades. Observers on the ground said the Israeli military did not spare even ambulances and members from the press crew. The Jenin Refugee camp has in recent years given rise to several armed Palestinian resistance groups.

Israeli officials voiced their perception of “security threats” being posed by these armed groups to Israeli citizens.  The raids conducted till the morning hours of Monday, June 19, 2023, lasted for several hours at a stretch. 48-year-old Amjad Aref al-Jaas died on Tuesday after having sustained bullet injuries on his stomach during the previous morning. The number of injured civilians stood at 90 confirmed by the Palestinian health authority.  The Monday night killing of Zakariya al-Zaaloul, a Palestinian youth near Bethlehem, in a village named Husan put the toll in the recent round of raids at 7.  This large-scale incursion carried out by the Israeli military on the Palestinian refugee camp was reportedly in response to the increasing number of Palestinian youth in this region taking up armed resistance.

More than 25 of these casualties constituted children including those in their teens. In the latest rounds of firing four ambulance crews were hit according to a Palestinian press officer. The firing is reported to have caused extensive damage to the structures and glass covers of the ambulances.

The latest round of casualties included a resistance leader identified as Amjad al-Jaas, the father of Waseem al-Jaas who was killed on January 26, this year, during a violent escalation from forces that were occupied on the ground.  The reports on assaults on ambulances and medical crews further disclosed that there was an inordinate delay before the medical aid teams were allowed access to the spot where people were injured. This caused many of those injured to turn out to be in a critical state.  According to ground reports from the patrols, the latest raid on June 19 had resulted in a massive exchange of fire from both sides.  The earlier four-day exchange of fire on the Gaza Strip in the second week of May this year had resulted in the deaths of 36 Palestinians.

International observers feel that the waning role of the Palestinian Authority forced many of their youth to take up an armed struggle against Israel’s military. Historically, the Jenin refugee camp was created after many Palestinians fled from their homes taken over by Jewish settlers, way back in 1953.  In 2002 there was an ambush by Israeli military personnel, which almost caused the annihilation of the Palestinian refugee camp.  It’s been two decades and odd since then, with the far right-wing government seeming to declare an all-out war.

*Senior journalist