Palestinian Fighters in West Bank Seek to Emulate Hamas in Gaza

[Pelican Press 0]

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************ Fighters in West Bank Seek to Emulate ****** in Gaza

The alleys are cast in permanent semidarkness, covered by ****** nylon tarpaulins to hide the ************ fighters there from ******** drones overhead. Green ****** flags and banners commemorating “martyrs” hang from the buildings, many badly damaged during ******** raids and airstrikes to try to tamp down

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in the territory, fueled by the war in Gaza.

This is not Gaza or a traditional ****** stronghold. It is a ******** camp in Tulkarm, a town in the ********-occupied West Bank, where the relatively moderate ************ faction of ****** had long held sway.

I recently met a local commander of these young militants, Muhammad Jaber, 25, in one of those dusty, shattered alleyways. One of *******’s most wanted men, he and other fighters like him say they have switched allegiances from the relatively moderate ****** faction, which dominates the ********-occupied West Bank, to more ******** groups like ****** and ************ Islamic ****** since the ******-led ******* on ******* on Oct. 7.

Asked

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from the war in Gaza, Mr. Jaber paused for a moment to think.

“Patience,” he said. “And strength. And courage.”

******** camps in the northern West Bank, like the one in Tulkarm, have been hotbeds of militancy for years, well before the war in Gaza, as fighters pushed back against ever-increasing ******** settlement activity and the ******** of the peace process to produce a ************ state. After Oct. 7, ****** urged Palestinians to join its uprising against *******, a call that seems to have been heeded by some in these camps.

Militants like Mr. Jaber want to push the Israelis out of the West Bank, which ******* occupied after the 1967 war, and some, like ******, want to push the Israelis out of the region entirely.

More weapons and explosives are being manufactured in the West Bank, according to both the fighters themselves and ******** military officials. They say the ******-dominated ************ Authority, which runs parts of the West Bank, is losing ground to the more ******** ************ factions, who are actively fighting ******* and gaining more support from Iran in the form of cash and weapons smuggled into the territory.

****** recognizes *******’s right to exist and cooperates with its army. But some of the militants affiliated to ******, part of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades crucial to the second intifada of the early 2000s, have never respected the ************ Authority and its compromises with ******* and the occupation. Some have, like Mr. Jaber, simply declared their new allegiance to the more hard-line Islamist factions.

Mr. Jaber, widely known by his nom de guerre, Abu Shujaa, meaning Father of the Brave, commands the local branch of Islamic ******, which dominates the Tulkarm camp. He also leads a collective of all the militant factions in that area, including the Aqsa Martyrs Brigade there, which is known as the Khatiba. He switched from ******, he said, because it was Islamic ****** and ****** who were taking the ****** to ******* to end the occupation and create Palestine by force of arms.

Mr. Jaber gained a kind of cult status in the spring when the ******** military

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during a raid on the Tulkarm camp. Three days later,

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at the ******** of other Palestinians ******* during that same raid, to joyous shouts from camp residents.

We met in an alley with streets stripped to sand by ******** bulldozers, before ducking into a storefront to avoid being sighted by drones. Thin and bearded, wearing a ****** Hugo Boss T-shirt and a Sig Sauer ******* on his hip, Mr. Jaber was watched by six bodyguards. Some were armed with M16 and M4 rifles with full magazines and optical sights.

The day was blisteringly hot, dust coating everything, laying in layers on the leaves of the few trees. The area has been heavily damaged by ******** drone strikes and armored bulldozers, which have ripped up many miles of paving in what the military said was an effort to uncover roadside ****** and other explosives.

The atmosphere was suffocating, mixed with wariness as spotters and bodyguards searched for undercover ******** soldiers, who sometimes arrive dressed as city workers, garbage collectors or vendors pushing carts with fruit and vegetables.

Even before Oct. 7, ******* was battling the growing threat of ************ militants like Mr. Jaber in ******** camps in the northern West Bank towns and cities, such as Tulkarm, Jenin and Nablus. Militant groups were establishing footholds in the camps, which were originally set up for refugees from the 1948-49 *****-******** war but later became impoverished urban settlements.

In the months preceding the Gaza war, ******** troops were raiding the West Bank camps to root out weapons, find explosives factories and arrest or ***** leaders like Mr. Jaber. There was a major ******** incursion into Jenin almost a year ago, among other operations.

The ************ Authority and police no longer control these ******** camps, where the militants threaten to ****** officers if they try to enter, according to the militants, ******** military officials and ************ officials, including the governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub.

The ******** actions aim to combat what one senior ******** military officer called the ********** infrastructure — command centers, explosives labs and underground facilities — that militants were trying to establish there with the help of Iranian money and weapons.

In the last two years, the West Bank camps have become safe havens, the officer noted, because the ************ Authority did not operate there anymore. The officer requested anonymity in accordance with ******** military ground rules.

When the ******** military attacks Tulkarm or Jenin, residents say, the ************ Authority security forces stay in their barracks in the city centers and do not confront them.

Though Mr. Jaber insisted he had no war with the ************ Authority, he condemned those “who have guns and stand in front of ******* and do nothing.”

“Liberation of our lands is our religion,” he said. “This is not my conflict but the people’s conflict, a war for land, freedom and dignity.”

On Sunday, an ******** drone strike on a house in the camp ******* a relative, Saeed Jaber, 25, a wanted militant who had also moved from ****** to Islamic ******.

Mr. Abu al-Rub, the governor, does not deny that the authority’s security forces stay out of the ******** camps, but he blames *******. “If ******* does not come, there are no problems,” he said. “******* is constantly working to create divisions among us, because if they ***** the people they can take the land.” It is *******, he said, “that causes chaos, that enters our ******** camps for no reason, ******** our youth, to weaken the P.A. and ensure people lose respect for their government.”

In the alleys of another impoverished Tulkarm ******** camp, a young man appeared, dressed in modish ****** with logos from North Face and Under Armour. Aged 18, he said he had been wounded several times and would only identify himself as Qutaybah, his nom de guerre, honoring an ***** general from more than 1,000 years ago. He belongs to ******, which dominates his camp.

Qutaybah has a long scar down his left arm, another on his abdomen, and he wore a ****** patch over his left eye, which he said he lost to a drone strike on Dec. 19. He said his earlier wounds came in May 2023 when ******** soldiers dressed as city workers entered the camp.

He said that he was badly wounded in that raid, during which two others were *******. His relatives later corroborated his story, but it could not be confirmed directly with the ******** authorities.

Qutaybah carried an M16 with an optical sight, one of two weapons he said he had stolen during

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, an ******** village abutting the West Bank. That ******* shook many Israelis and seemed to render a calm part of ******* less safe, foreshadowing further military moves to counter the ************ fighters.

“No one comes to you and tells you to join the resistance,” Qutaybah said. “What is there for us here anyway? We live in a prison.”

He and his friends have learned some lessons from Gaza, he added.

“We see the Israelis ******** our innocent women and children. Their plan is to carry out a genocide here next,” he said. Gaza will at least “encourage more in the West Bank to resist.”

Qutaybah rubbed his ****** sneaker over broken pavement in the alley.

“There is a ***** under here,” he said. “When the Israelis come.”

The bodyguards and fighters posted to the camp’s entrances work in shifts. They carry walkie-talkies to warn of ******** raids and of any stranger who would risk wandering in.

Most of those fighters, like Hassan, 35, have been in ******** jails. Hassan has three daughters but did not want to discuss them or their future or his family name, just his mission.

“Every entrance is blocked and watched,” he said. “The Israelis can come in any time.”

Also in the alley was Ayham Sroudji, 15, who was born in the ******** camp. He is not a member of any militant group and says he’s good at school, when it isn’t canceled because of *********.

Did he want to become a teacher and help his people that way? “Become a teacher?” he answered. “There is no such thing here. What did I see in my life but ******** soldiers invading my camp?”

Asked about his dreams, he said: “I want to see a beach. I’ve never seen a beach in my life.”

Beside him was Ahmed, 17, carrying an M4 rifle. “Is there no one who doesn’t want to see the beach, the land they took from us?” Ahmed said.

“I dream to see Jerusalem liberated,” Ayham added. “Israelis are living in and enjoying our land, and we want to force them out of what they stole.”

Then he pointed around him, to the dust, the rubble, the guns.

“Look what we wake up to,” he said. “Do you even see a sidewalk? Sometimes I dream of a smooth pavement and a sidewalk.”

Rami Nazzal contributed reporting from Tulkarm and Jenin, and Natan Odenheimer from Jerusalem.

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