West Bank attacks: To western leaders, there are no red lines for Israel’s slaughter

The Israeli military has launched a significant offensive against four refugee camps and nearly every town in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. Employing battlefield weapons, helicopter landings akin to commando operations, drones, and bulldozers, this assault cannot be merely seen as a reaction to the Gaza conflict.

This operation far exceeds what Israel claims to be a “counter-terrorism” initiative.

According to a senior Fatah official with ties to security circles, the war in the West Bank was planned well before Hamas’s attack on October 7 last year. While the Gaza conflict delayed the plan, it also gave Israel the opportunity to refine its tactics.

Observing the extent to which the US and Europe were willing to tolerate Palestinian bloodshed in Gaza—along with the massive destruction, widespread displacement, and the prolonged nature of the conflict—Israel felt encouraged to unleash the same devastation on its true target: the occupied West Bank.

Crushing the West Bank would effectively end any hope for a Palestinian state.

This is the clear message from Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right minister and settler who has been advocating for the transfer of governance in the occupied West Bank from military to civilian control. He has been vocal and consistent in his messaging.

Much like the war in Gaza, “Operation Summer Camps” isn’t primarily focused on local resistance groups or their leaders, although several have already been targeted and killed.

The land and air assaults on Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas, as well as the sieges on hospitals and the detention of medical staff, are aimed squarely at the civilian population, mirroring the tactics used in Gaza.

The bulldozers are not just clearing paths for tanks; they are deliberately destroying essential infrastructure like water pipes and drainage systems. This is done with the full knowledge that in six months, the occupied West Bank will face major disease outbreaks and epidemics, just as Gaza is currently experiencing.

It’s important to understand that this isn’t just Smotrich’s covert plan to annex most of the West Bank by forcing large-scale population transfers to Area A—still nominally under Palestinian Authority (PA) control—or, ideally from Israel’s perspective, to Jordan.

This is a comprehensive government plan. Shortly after the military offensive began, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, openly called for population transfers, cloaked under the term “temporary evacuation.”

“This is a war for everything, and we must win it,” Katz declared.

A Methodical Strategy Smotrich revealed during a speech to settlers, recorded by a Peace Now activist, that his plan has the full support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Smotrich described his plan to permanently change the governance of the occupied West Bank as “mega-dramatic,” asserting that such changes would fundamentally alter the system’s DNA.

For the average Jewish Israeli citizen, the West Bank operation is fully endorsed. They believe that if the international community allowed the displacement of over two million Palestinians in Gaza, the same could be done in the West Bank, without Israel being bound by legal obligations as an occupying power or any international boundaries.

Disturbingly, they are correct in this assumption.

The Gaza conflict has accelerated Smotrich’s plan to annex the occupied West Bank.

Since October 7, the line between settlers and the military, once blurred, has been completely erased, as noted in an editorial by Haaretz.

Settlers who, before the war, were burning Palestinian homes and crops, have now re-emerged in military uniforms, armed and authorized by the Israeli army.

In just the first ten days following the Hamas attack, 62 Palestinians were killed, and dozens were injured in settler attacks. Roadblocks were erected, all with a specific purpose: to drive Palestinians from their homes and farms.

B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, documented that eight entire communities, consisting of 87 families totaling 472 people, including 136 minors, were forced from their homes within one week.

Don’t be misled by the few, increasingly isolated voices of reason within Israel’s security establishment. Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar warned that the increasingly overt settler violence is causing “indescribable damage” to Israel and fundamentally changing its character.

The attacks on the refugee camps of Balata, Nur Shams, Jenin, and Far’a have a calculated aim.

These camps are densely populated with Palestinians from various walks of life. Israel’s goal is to ethnically cleanse these camps, erasing the last traces of the Palestinian people’s basic right to return.

The PA is paralyzed and lacks any serious response to this all-out assault on its homeland.

“There is no serious plan, because the most important aspect of resisting the Israeli action is having one Palestinian leadership and one Palestinian vision, which would mean ending the division between Fatah and Hamas. Yet, the PA is not serious about this,” said a knowledgeable Fatah insider.

No Boundaries Without leadership, the Palestinian response remains unpredictable. However, history has shown that the major events that shaped this conflict were unforeseen.

No one predicted the First Intifada. No one foresaw Operation al-Aqsa Flood.

“The Palestinian people have always been creative and determined in their responses, never surrendering,” the Fatah insider stated.

One thing is certain: genocide, a horror the world vowed would never happen again after the Holocaust, is being normalized. This will impact not only the future of Palestinians but also the future of the entire world.

For the past 11 months, I have received daily images of dead bodies, shattered heads, and body parts being gathered into bags.

As the regional bureau chief for Middle East Eye, it is my duty to review and analyze these images. These brutal images are never shown in the Israeli media or the Western world, but they are a daily reality for Arab and Muslim audiences.

The atrocities committed by Israeli soldiers could easily be replicated in other countries. We seem to be sleepwalking into a new era of barbarity.

While this daily massacre continues, Kamala Harris was anointed as the new Democratic presidential nominee, while the organizers of the party’s convention did everything possible to exclude a Palestinian speaker from the main stage.

They told The Washington Post that they did this to maintain “unity” at the conference.

As a journalist and a human being, the inhumanity of these times deeply disturbs me.

Every Palestinian understands that Israel operates with total impunity, free to do whatever it wants to us.

Perhaps, in the long run, the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court will overcome efforts by the US and others to silence them. But none of this offers any immediate protection to Jenin, Tulkarm, or Tubas. Nothing stops Israel from dropping 1,000-pound bombs on tents.

As a Palestinian, whether you live in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem, or even as a citizen of Israel, the Israeli state has the power to make you, your home, and your family disappear overnight, without any questions asked.

Gaza and now the occupied West Bank have shown us that there are no red lines. How many children must die before the world intervenes to stop this slaughter?

The answer seems to be that there is no limit.