Gaza carnage turns West Bank into tinder box ready to explode

A spike in Palestinian deaths, increased army raids, settler provocation and seething anger at Gaza point to an eruption of violence.

Settler violence that removes villages, increased raids and sweeps by the IDF and outrage at the enormous death toll in Gaza have created a combustible mix in the occupied West Bank.

As the Israel-Hamas war enters its fifth week, Retired General Amos Gilad, a former senior Israeli defence ministry policymaker, told The Jewish Independent that security officials are still concerned the West Bank could erupt into a new front of the Gaza war. At the same time, a leading Palestinian analyst told The Jewish Independent that Israeli policies and the Gaza carnage appear to be pushing towards an “explosion” in the West Bank.

“If things continue with escalation in the West Bank and massacres in Gaza, we could go to an explosion, a big explosion,” Jihad Harb, former senior analyst at the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, said by phone from Ramallah.

“I can’t say when this explosion will be,” he added. The war began on October 7 when members of Hamas armed wing invaded Israel from Gaza and killed about 1400 people in a string of attacks, massacres and atrocities. They also took more than 200 people back to Gaza as hostages on the deadliest and most devastating day ever for Israel.

Its relentless bombardments in Gaza have been accompanied by arrest raids in the West Bank targeting Hamas supporters and others. Harb said that constant army raids, which have fuelled a sharp rise in fatalities, “will lead other youths to join confrontations”.

Since October 7, 136 Palestinians, including 43 children, have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and eight, including one child, have been killed by settlers, according to the United Nations Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs. Two Israelis have been killed by Palestinians. The tallies run through November 4.