In the wake of a shooting attack on an Israeli bus in East Jerusalem on Sept. 8, Palestinians in the West Bank are preparing themselves to face collective punishment from Israel in retaliation for the attack. Palestinian journalist Leila Warah speaking to Al Jazeera from the Aida refugee camp in the West Bank, said Palestinians were “very much on edge, waiting to see what is going to happen.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces are pursuing the villages where the attackers hailed from, in what was a now standard Israeli response to such attacks, said Warah.
“What we’re really seeing is a symptom … of the Israeli military occupation,” she continued. “The economy is crumbling. People can’t find work. People are met with military checkpoints wherever they go. It is very difficult for people to live what would be described as a normal life here in the West Bank.”
Warah said such repression had been a reality of life since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank began. “But since October 7, 2023, it has been significantly increasing with military raids and settler attacks.” She said there were concerns that settler attacks on Palestinians could ramp up in retaliation for the Jerusalem shooting after calls from Ben-Gvir for Israelis to arm themselves.
The attack, by 2 armed Palestinians, killed 6 Israelis and wounded 20 more. Israeli officials wasted no time promising violent retribution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that the killings would “strengthen” Israeli resolve in the fight against “terrorism.”
“We are now engaged in pursuit and are cordoning off the villages from which the murderers came,” he said, reported Middle East Eye. “We will apprehend whoever aided and dispatched them, and we will take even stronger steps.” He added that attacks of this nature would lead to increased Israeli activity in the occupied West Bank and the expansion of their sovereignty there–in other words, annexation.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich went further than Netanyahu and said the attacks proved the need for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority. “The Palestinian Authority must disappear from the map, and the villages from which the terrorists came should look like Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” he said in a post on X, referencing areas of Gaza which the Israeli army has flattened.
Defense Minister Israel Katz promised that Israeli military operations would expand across the West Bank beyond the refugee camps that had previously been a major focus. “There will be severe and far-reaching consequences to this heinous attack,” he said, according to his office. “Just as we defeated Palestinian terrorism in northern Samaria—we will soon do the same in other terror camps.”
