Eyewitness Report from the West Bank: “The Israeli Army is Now Launching Major Military Operations to Drive Us Out”

The World Socialist Website spoke over the weekend with Jassir Hamdan (name changed), who is currently in the West Bank. He has been living in Germany for years and is visiting his family in Nablus. He spoke with Dietmar Gaisenkersting.

Dietmar Gaisenkersting: Our appointment on Thursday was cancelled because you had to go to your in-laws. What happened?

Jassir Hamdan: I had traveled with my wife to visit my in-laws, who live on the other side of the city of Nablus, after Israeli soldiers suddenly entered the city with their vehicles and caused total chaos.

The soldiers were looking for certain people, shooting, killing people, taking pictures of everything. Usually you don’t know what they want or what they are planning. That’s what happened to my parents-in-law in my neighborhood on Thursday. They blocked a road for a few hours and everyone was scared. It’s dangerous to drive a private car because the Israeli soldiers shoot randomly. That’s why everyone immediately tries to get to safety, hide until the soldiers leave. Only then is it reasonably safe to return home.

Nablus is a relatively large city, the second largest in Palestine. In eastern Nablus, where my parents-in-law live, there are two refugee camps nearby, Balata and Askar. That is why the Israelis always cause so much trouble on that side of the city, because the fighters are concentrated on that side of the city, and also in the old city of Nablus.

DG: What kind of fighters are they?

JH: They are largely organized under Hamas, from the military wing of Fatah and, to a lesser extent, from Islamic Jihad. These are fighters who are fighting against the occupation, against the settlers, against the violence of the Israelis. However, they are relatively isolated as small groups in each city, because the West Bank is divided by the Israeli settlements into many small, separate islands. Persecuted by both the Israeli army and the Palestinian Authority, it is difficult for them to move around the country, which is why it is so difficult to organize.

Very few of them have homemade explosives, like in Jenin. There they blew up Israeli military vehicles. That was the reason for this ten-day operation in Jenin. The Israelis killed many people during the process, but also before and after the operation.

DG: What role does the Palestinian Authority (under President Mahmoud Abbas) play in this? Does it take action against Israel?

JH: No, you can forget about them. I have spoken to so many acquaintances, friends and relatives who live here. No one trusts the Palestinian Authority. They are playing an absolutely treacherous role now. They just do what the Israelis want and they help the Israelis. For example, the fighters in the old city of Nablus have put a lot of umbrellas on the roofs so that Israeli drones and planes cannot observe the streets.

The Palestinian Authority destroys these screens regularly. And we know for sure that a few hours later, or at the latest the next day, Israeli soldiers will march in and kill the fighters. This is part of their cooperation with the Israeli army, and that is why we have no confidence in the corrupt, treacherous Palestinian Authority.