Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, has asserted that ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank is “not just raids … it’s an act of war.”
Stressing that the West Bank has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, Barghouti told a news agency, that what Israel “is doing is conducting a war on occupied people which is a total violation of international law on how an occupying power should behave.”
This came as Israel’s military claimed to kill nine fighters in its latest raids throughout the occupied West Bank.
In a post on Telegram, the military described the nine people killed as “armed terrorists who posed a threat to security forces.”
It also claimed to arrest more “wanted suspects” in Jenin and Tulkarem, while confiscating explosives “planted under roads” in Far’a camp.
Israel’s continuing military raid has mobilised hundreds of troops in the West Bank, making it the largest operation there in decades.
In Jenin, the local Governor stated that Israeli forces have cut off access to several hospitals, one of which is at risk of being stormed.
According to Barghouti, Israeli soldiers are using air strikes, air force, tanks, bulldozers, and what they are trying to do is “to transfer the actual genocide and ethnic cleansing ongoing in Gaza into the West Bank.”
He added that the amount of damage Israeli forces inflicted on the Palestinian territory’s infrastructure also indicates their goal to make it uninhabitable for its citizens.
“They destroyed water pipelines, electricity lines, houses, schools – what do they want? They want to create a situation where we cannot live in our country and that is exactly what the settlers’ plans are about.
“It’s about Judaization of the West Bank, about annexing the West Bank and killing any opportunity for the Palestinians to be free and to have a state of their own.”
Mustafa Barghouti
Separately, the Spokesman for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said that Israel’s escalating war in the occupied West Bank on the cities, villages and camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas, in addition to the war in the Gaza Strip, will lead to “dire and dangerous” results.
He noted that Israel’s escalating policy, the destruction of cities, the killing of citizens, detentions and colonisation, will not bring security and stability to anyone.
Abu Rudeineh called on the US to intervene immediately and force Israeli authorities to stop their comprehensive war on the Palestinian people.
“The world must take immediate and urgent action to curb this extremist government that poses a threat to the stability of the region and the world as a whole,” he said.
Control Over West Bank Deemed Israel’s Top Priority
Meanwhile, Hassan Barari, a Professor of international affairs at Qatar University, opined that Israel’s intense raids in the occupied West Bank, where they have continued to expand settlements during the Gaza war, shows that exerting control over the territory is a top priority.
“Israel’s objective number one is not Gaza, it is the West Bank. This is the heart of what they say is the biblical land,” Barari told a news agency, adding that Israel aims to expel even more Palestinians.
However, he noted that the Israeli military is likely to continue facing fierce resistance from a new generation of hardened fighters who are just as committed to protecting their homeland.
Barari said that the Palestinians “born after the second Intifada are more insistent to realise their objectives, even by violent means,” without putting their hopes in the Palestinian Authority (PA).
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