As Palestinian resistance continues to spread, Operation Break the Wave is reaching a dead end, pushing some Israeli politicians to call for a repeat of 2002, or an “Operation Defensive Shield 2.”
Israeli forces and Israeli settlers killed 3 Palestinians in three days shortly after Itamar Ben Gvir called for an “Operation Defensive Shield 2” in response to the targeting of Israeli settlers.
In the aftermath of Israel’s ten-day siege on Jericho, the people of Aqbat Jabr refugee camp rally around the martyrs of a nascent armed resistance group that has emerged in their midst.
Hamza Ashqar, 16, reportedly threw a piece of metal towards the army vehicles almost 100 feet away, when an Israeli soldier fired two fatal shots at him from inside one of the vehicles.
After a ten day siege, the Israeli army invaded Aqbat Jabr refugee camp in Jericho and assassinated five resistance fighters in the camp, signaling the extension of armed resistance beyond Nablus and Jenin.
After a ten-day siege imposed on Jericho and its surrounding area, the Israeli army launched an assault on Aqbat Jabr refugee camp, killing 5 Palestinians.
The next escalation is already here.
It feels very different from previous cycles of resistance and repression, as if Palestine is on the brink of something closer to an uprising.
While the many possible futures of Palestinian resistance remain formless and kaleidoscopic, the colonial constant ensures that resistance will have a future.
In the aftermath of the Jenin raid and the shooting operations in Jerusalem, Israeli government officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have called for swift and sweeping policies of retribution across the occupied Palestinian territory – promising increased punitive home demolitions and other measures meant to target the families of Palestinians who carry out attacks against Israelis.
But despite the government’s moves towards more collective punishment, the tension on the ground continues to swell, and shows no signs of stopping.
The past three days have been some of the deadliest recorded in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem in years. Here is a full breakdown of what has transpired.
On Thursday, Israeli forces invaded Jenin refugee camp and killed nine Palestinians in what residents of the camp called “a massacre.” On Friday, Palestinians responded with protest and resistance that culminated in armed resistance operations being carried out across the West Bank, including in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov in occupied East Jerusalem, where at least seven Israelis were killed.
Israeli forces launched a brutal assault on Jenin refugee camp that killed 9 Palestinians and a tenth later in the day during clashes in al-Ram, making it the deadliest day of 2023, and one of the single deadliest raids in the West Bank in years.