Alwaght- While the Palestinian groups are tightening the noose on the Israelis with stepped up activities in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli forces in recent days attacked Jenin Camp and arrested Islamic Jihad chief in the West Bank Bassam al-Saadi. The raid followed Palestinian groups publishing images of two Israeli captives who were captured in the past wars, and Tel Aviv seems to have arrested al-Saadi in response to this move.
This action has resulted in a strong reaction from the Palestinians. Saraya Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, warned in a statement the occupation leaders against any harm to al-Saadi. Announcing general mobilization of its forces across Palestine, the group declared that it is ready to respond with force if the aggression does not stop.
Immediately after the arrest of al-Saadi, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the secretary general of Islamic Jihad, traveled to Tehran and met and talked with senior Iranian officials. In these meetings, senior Iranian officials declared their firm support for the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation and asserted that "the resistance is the only way to liberate Al-Quds (Jerusalem)." Given the fact that Al-Nakhalah's Iran trip coincides with escalation of tensions in the occupied territories, it contains messages for the Israeli leaders, warning them that they should take everything into account in their calculations.
The warnings of Islamic Jihad caused the Israeli army to raise the alert level on the border with Gaza and send a lot of equipment to this area, and it is even said that the Iron Dome anti-missile system has been deployed to the borders. The Israelis know very well that the resistance groups have now made many missile and land achievements, and in case of a new war, they will not sit on their hands and can inflict heavy damages on the Israeli regime. This is why the Israelis dispatched all of their military capabilities to Gaza borders.
The tensions between the Islamic Jihad and Tel Aviv are running high as the first branch of this Palestinian movement announced its existence in the West Bank in the past month, and this issue has caused widespread concern among the Israeli leaders. They feel threatened and are worried that the West Bank will become the second front of the resistance groups inside Palestine and they will be attacked from two fronts in the event of conflicts, and therefore, by arresting the man responsible for militarization of the West Bank, they wanted to tell that they will not allow the resistance activities in the West Bank and to nip the new branch in the bud.
But the Palestinians of West Bank in recent years, especially after the Operation Sword of Al-Quds in 2021 against the Israeli regime have come to believe that the only way to fight the occupiers and liberate their lands is armed struggle, and the successes of the Gaza resistance in several wars bear witness to this fact. The more resistance fronts, the less enemy cannot easily start a war. Now, the conditions of the region and the Axis of Resistance are such that the future conflict will not be limited to the borders of Palestine, and all groups, from Lebanese Hezbollah to Iran and Yemen's Ansarullah, will all be on a united front. In last year's 11-day war, intelligence and logistical cooperation was established among all the resistance groups in the region and these cooperations are elevating to new heights day by day.
In the Operation Sword of Al-Quds, over 4,000 rockets were fired at the Israeli cities within 11 days— a new record in the history of the Palestinian anti-occupation struggle. During the operation that came in response to the Israeli atrocities in Al-Quds and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, Hamas for the first time targeted the capital Tel Aviv. In recent months, Palestinian groups revealed more weapons and military capabilities they developed since the last war, warning that in case of a new war, they will deal painful blows to the Israeli forces. Although the Israelis tried in recent months to spread intimidation among the Palestinians and foil resistance plans by raids in West Bank, their program has backfired and the Palestinians are now more optimistic about victory through armed struggle.
Iran's resolute message to Israelis
Iran is the only country that publicly supports the Palestinian fight against the Israeli occupation and is not afraid to declare it provides military support to them. As the tensions between Tehran and Tel Aviv are boiling over, the Islamic Republic feels a bigger need to back the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The Wednesday meeting of the Iranian officials with the Islamic Jihad leaders sent a clear message to Tel Aviv, warning that if it makes a mistake, Tehran has many options to make Israelis regret their actions. In other words, If the Israeli strategists boast of their 'death by thousand cuts' strategy against Iran, Tehran can do the same thing.
Another point is that in recent days, Iran and the West have resumed talks to revive the nuclear deal and the Israelis like before are putting the skids under a new agreement to put strains on the Islamic Republic after failure of the negotiations. They have been successful to some degree and recent anti-Iranian sanctions by Washington are actually incited by the Israelis who want to block an Iranian-Western deal at any expense. The presence of Islamic Jihad leaders in Tehran was a clear message to the opposite side that Tehran will continue supports to its regional allies and whether the deal is revived or not, it will not affect the approach of pressuring the Israeli regime.
That in recent days the Israelis tightened security measures to counter any military action from Gaza is because they are concerned that Iran takes retaliatory measures, via Palestinian groups, against Israeli interests for Israeli sabotages inside Iran or propagandistic campaign against Iran in Turkey. Last week speech of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah about readiness for a military action against the Israeli regime to inflict heavy losses on it has proven heavily worrisome to the Israelis as they know that Nasrallah fulfills what he promises.
The Israelis thought that normalization deals with a small number of compromising Arab rulers could secure them, but rise of new resistance branches in the West Bank and shoring up contacts with Iran as an unwavering backer and also with the whole body of the Axis of Resistance, including Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria, caused Tel Aviv to move into a defensive shell rather than break its isolation.
