TEHRAN- The latest escalation in the occupied West Bank carries all the hallmarks to the prelude of the second intifada that erupted in the year 2000 by the Palestinians, who waged an uprising against the Israeli regime.

More and more Palestinian youth, dismayed by international inaction toward the Israeli ethnic cleansing campaign, the ongoing desecration of Islam's third holiest site (the al-Aqsa Mosque) along with many other atrocities are resorting to retaliatory armed resistance operations. 

One of the reasons that triggered the second intifada (uprising) in the year 2000 was the provocative visit by then Israeli Prime Minister and war criminal Aerial Sharon to the al-Aqsa Mosque in al-Quds (Jerusalem). 

One of the many aspects that Israel fails to comprehend until its apartheid regime ends is that the holy sites, with the al-Aqsa Mosque in particular, are a red line for the Palestinians. 

This was evident last year when Israeli forces brutally attacked and beat up Palestinians worshippers praying inside the Mosque, thereby triggering the eleven-day sword of al-Quds operation that saw Palestinian missiles from the besieged Gaza Strip rain down on vital Israeli infrastructure.

Today the desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque has been occurring more frequently with Israeli squatters being protected by the Israeli military into the Mosque’s compound to perform their Jewish rituals while Palestinian Muslims, who own the holy site, are prevented by the regime from entering. News has also emerged that holy books of the Quran have been set alight in the occupied city with Palestinian officials blaming Israeli settlers.

The almost daily pre-dawn Israeli raids in the West Bank, most notably in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, have also triggered a reaction from the Palestinians, angering them even further. Israeli military raids across the occupied West Bank this year have already murdered at least 100 Palestinians and injured tens of thousands of others. This is while the mass arrest campaign of Palestinians is also being ignored by the international community.

The surge in violence in the West Bank has been one of the worst in years. The UN envoy for Middle East (West Asia), Tor Wennesland, said he was alarmed by the violence and called for calm. But you can’t call for calm when a 12-year-old kid is murdered. The Palestinian boy succumbed to wounds he sustained during an Israeli invasion twelve days ago. His name was Mahmoud Samoudi.

Israeli officials are urging the Palestinian Authority to do more to control the response from the West Bank; but in a statement, the PA said that Israeli officials are "delusional". 

The New York Times said, "The resurgence of loosely formed, armed Palestinian militias in the northern West Bank is increasingly reminiscent of the chaos there during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which broke out in 2000 and lasted more than four years.”

The paper correctly added, "The recent spasm of violence gripping Israel (occupied Palestinian territories) and the West Bank is the worst those areas have seen in years. The Israeli military has been carrying out an intensified campaign of arrest raids, particularly in and around the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus."

It goes on to say, "The high death toll in the West Bank has spurred more disaffected Palestinian men to take up arms and try to carry out revenge attacks, according to analysts."

But here is where the NYT narrative is far from the truth. The paper says "the new militancy comes after years without any political progress toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

But it has not been “years” without any “political progress” toward a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It has been decades, and to be even more precise, there hasn't been any progress since 1948 when Israel was created.
In fact, there has been no progress. What is called progress, such as the Camp David accords, has seen Palestinian territories shrink further. The map of the state of Palestine in 1948 is remarkable in comparison to a map of the diminishing West Bank (now occupied by an ever-increasing number of Israeli squatters) and the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Over the decades, Israel pretty much stole all of the land. There is nothing left of Palestine today compared to 1948.

Before Israel came into existence, Muslims, Christians and Jews lived in peace. Since 1948, there has been nothing but genocide, war crimes and massacres.

This is where the armed resistance in the West Bank is beginning to expand to levels not seen since the second intifada. This is why the West Bank is returning to resistance to force Israel to end its ethnic cleansing campaign and to end the apartheid regime. There has been a significant increase in armed retaliatory operations this year.

An Israeli soldier shot dead in the vicinity of al-Quds in recent days. According to Israeli officials, another Israeli armed forces' member also sustained critical injuries. The Palestinian opened fire at an Israeli checkpoint that leads to the entrance of the Shuafat Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of al-Quds near the West Bank. Israel has besieged Shuafat and cut split the West Bank in two pieces of land at one town, with the southern and northern residents unable to visit each other.

Israeli regime forces then murdered two Palestinian teenagers near al-Quds and another two Palestinians during clashes across the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death of the two Palestinian teens, aged 16 and 18, by Israeli firearms while a dozen others were wounded. 

The Israeli military launched another military raid to arrest the suspected gunman, which the regime claims is from the Islamic Jihad resistance group in the West Bank city of Jenin but the regime's troop were met with live fire by Palestinians who shot and threw explosives at them.

Most of the Palestinian armed operations against the occupation forces have seen lone wolf commandos avenging the murder of their loved ones or the Israeli invasion of Palestinian towns and villages.

The latest in near-daily incursions into Jenin, a resistance stronghold, underlines the volatile security climate in the occupied West Bank as Israel heads is moving towards elections on November 1. 

Israeli forces launched their so-called operation "breakwater", which saw a heavy armed crackdown on Palestinian families in various towns and villages (especially Jenin) on March 31 in response to a string of fatal Palestinian retaliatory operations in the occupied territories.

Much to Israel’s dismay, the crackdown did little to end the new wave of West Bank resistance as evidenced by events over the past few weeks and months. 

Israeli special forces are said to have surrounded a Palestinian house in the town of Abu Shkhaydam, north of Ramallah. Reports have emerged saying the forces have rearrested a freed prisoner and blew up the doors of apartments inside the besieged building.

This is what the regime is very good at: bombing villages and blowing up the doors of family homes.

Local sources also said the occupation forces surrounded the house of another recently freed prisoner in the Jenin camp, amid an outbreak of violent clashes with the resistance fighters. They added that the regime’s helicopters were flying over the site of the clashes.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qasem has emphasized that the residents of Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank will continue to resist the Israeli occupation despite the ongoing aggression against them. 

In a press statement, Qasem stressed that the Israeli occupation will never undermine the Palestinian public support for resistance to the occupation.

“The Israeli occupation is waging an open and comprehensive war against the Palestinian people everywhere, including Jerusalem, the al-Aqsa Mosque, Gaza, the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, and the West Bank,” he stated.