Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been exploiting the power vacuum in the northern West Bank to strengthen their military presence and replicate the fighting tactics against Israel that they developed in Gaza, according to a new report.
The analysis, published last week by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), highlights the various indications pointing at a new military infrastructure emerging in the Jenin and Nablus areas — resembling what already exists in the coastal enclave ruled by Hamas since 2007 — thanks to the dwindling control of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority over the area.
Among these indications are local manufacturing of weapons and advanced explosive devices; excavating tunnels; launching rockets; and fostering cooperation among different terror organizations, similar to the “Joint War Room” they set up in the Gaza Strip.
Like in Gaza, the main actors on this new terror front are Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Both groups enjoy significant financial and military support from Iran, and both groups regularly thank Iran publicly for the aid it sends to Gaza and the West Bank.
For instance, in a June 30 interview with the Iranian Arabic-language newspaper Al-Vefagh, PIJ leader Ziyad al-Nakhaleh said that armament of the West Bank has been taking place in accordance with instructions issued in 2014 by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who put forth a plan to “smuggle arms into the area, or buy them from the Israelis themselves.”
In recent months, however, it appears that explosive devices have been increasingly developed in the West Bank itself, and are more powerful than in the past. For example, the report mentioned that a large explosive device that was detonated on June 19 against an IDF armored vehicle on its way out of Jenin weighed 80 kilograms (176 lbs), and was allegedly produced by the engineering unit of the Jenin Brigade, a cross-factional group that emerged in September 2021.
Other terrorist groups have been boasting of their weapons-manufacturing capabilities. For example, the engineering unit of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, posted a series of videoclips showcasing the explosive devices it produced, including a new type called Shuwaz 1, with alleged armor-penetrating capabilities.
Another tactic that terror groups are trying to import from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank is the use of tunnels. Excavated by Hamas in and out of Gaza for years to smuggle weapons and merchandise from Egypt, and to attempt to penetrate into Israel, tunnels recently made their appearance in the Jenin area, as exposed during the IDF military operation “Bayit Vagan” in early July.
Further evidence of the fact that terror groups are replicating the Gaza model in the West Bank is the increasing military cooperation between armed Palestinian factions, the analysts said. The model in this case is the Joint War Room in Gaza, an umbrella organization that is mainly activated during rounds of fighting with Israel.
A larger and more structured emulation of the Gazan Joint War Room is the “Jenin Brigade,” also known as “Jenin Battalion,” established in the northern West Bank city in 2021. Divided into independent cells, the group is dominated by the al-Quds Brigades, the PIJ’s military arm, but also includes members from Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the PFLP’s military wing, Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades.
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