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Why Is the Media Blaming Israel for Stopping Terrorist Attacks in the West Bank?
A Palestinian man walks near Israeli military vehicles, during an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the West Bank, August 31, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Since Hamas’ brutal October 7 massacre in southern Israel, another war-front has been simmering in the West Bank. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad cells, operating throughout Palestinian towns and cities in these territories, have escalated their terror attacks against Israelis.
Since October 7, more than 4,000 attacks have been reported from the West Bank alone, including an attempted mass-casualty suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last month, and a deadly stabbing outside a mall in Gan Yavne.
In response, the IDF has launched numerous counterterrorism operations, targeting heavily-armed terrorists in these areas. The IDF faces the added challenge of uncovering bombs buried beneath roads, using bulldozers to dig under the asphalt.
Israeli military officials have emphasized that these operations are aimed at preventing major terror attacks, with nighttime raids targeting terror leaders, operatives, and bomb labs. However, they acknowledge that while commanders and bomb makers will eventually be replaced, reestablishing bomb-making facilities will take more time for the terrorists.
This volatile situation in the West Bank was the focus of a Sky News segment titled, “Could Israel face a third intifada in the West Bank?” featuring security analyst Michael Clarke.
While Clarke acknowledged the flow of Iranian money and weapons fueling Palestinian terror in the West Bank, unfortunately, parts of his analysis were marked by conjecture and unsubstantiated insinuations.
Suspicion Cast on Israeli Motives
From the outset, Clarke casts doubt on the legitimacy of the IDF’s operations. He acknowledges that the IDF claims its actions are based on intelligence about imminent terrorist attacks, but conspiratorially adds: “Do they really have intelligence of plots that were about to be triggered? Most of us think that’s less likely.”
Who exactly this “most of us” refers to is left unclear. He conveniently ignores the numerous recent terror attacks thwarted by the IDF, such as the one when a would-be suicide bomber en route to Tel Aviv was stopped at a military checkpoint after traveling from his home in Jenin.
Clarke then suggests that Israel’s actions could “trigger a third intifada,” likening the situation to the early 2000s and predicting a “general uprising” because there are “three and a half million people in the West Bank who are very, very angry with Israeli security forces.”
He implies that this anger stems from Israel’s so-called “aggressive” counterterrorism strategy:
The bulldozers that we see are very a symbol of all of this because Israelis claim correctly that Palestinian militants are planting bombs in the roads … but the response of the Israelis to that is to take up the whole road, in a sense, to punish the neighborhood by saying that if you allow these people to plant bombs in your road, you’ll lose the road, and that’s a very aggressive counterterrorist technique.
First, and this shouldn’t need to be stated repeatedly, the argument that Israel’s defensive actions are “triggering” further violence is absurd. It implies that Israel should allow its civilians to be murdered in the streets because preventing those deaths might provoke the attackers even more.
Second, the violence Clarke refers to during the Second Intifada was not an “uprising” against military forces or the Israeli presence in the West Bank. These were campaigns of terror targeting civilians inside Israel.
The Dolphinarium discotheque massacre, the Sbarro pizza bombing, and countless shootings and stabbings weren’t acts of resistance against soldiers or “the occupation.” They were cold-blooded attacks on ordinary people.
Third, Clarke’s claim that the IDF uses bulldozers to “punish” Palestinians ignores the plain reality. Bulldozers are essential for uncovering bombs buried beneath roads, preventing IDF soldiers from being blown up.
In the end, Clarke’s analysis — presented by Sky News as expert opinion and left unchallenged — follows a familiar pattern, the eternal paradigm the media refuses to abandon. Even as the attackers, Palestinians are paradoxically framed as victims, while Israel is cast as the provocateur of their “justifiable” anger.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Why Is the Media Blaming Israel for Stopping Terrorist Attacks in the West Bank? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Denies Troops Fired on Civilians After Incidents of Settler Violence
Illustrative. Israeli troops during counterterrorism activity in Tulkarem, northwestern Samaria, September 2024. Photo: IDF.
i24 News – The IDF released a statement after an incident during which Israeli soldiers opened fire on Israeli civilians in the West Bank on Saturday night, denying that the trooped fired live ammunition.
This comes at the heels of arson incidents by settlers against Palestinian villages, with clashes breaking out. The IDF said that its soldiers had come under attack on Friday as they entered the area of Kafr Malik, the site of the disturbances, by Israeli civilians. “The undermining of the rule of law and the use of violence by a radical minority harm security and stability in the area.”
The IDF later said that “an initial investigation indicates that IDF forces did not fire live ammunition at Israeli civilians in the area. It should be clarified that the battalion commander’s force operating in the Baal Hatzor area of the Binyamin brigade did not fire live ammunition at all.” On the other hand, the civilians claimed this was false, posting a video that showed shell casings on the ground right next to where the troops were deployed.
Meanwhile, the police requested the remand of six individuals, two of whom are minors, to be extended in connection with the incident.
The IDF later said that, “in another area within the sector, stones were thrown at a military vehicle near the site of the clash by masked individuals from an ambush. The force responded with a warning shot of three bullets.” A possible connection “between this incident and the claim that an Israeli civilian was injured by live fire” is being investigated.
After the incidents late last week, the IDF issued an unusual directive for soldiers to exercise special vigilance and also prepare for scenarios involving nationalist incidents perpetrated by Israeli citizens. The directive was issued after a military vehicle was set on fire inside a Jewish settlement, the tires of an armored David vehicle were punctured, and a community policing caravan near the community of Beit El was also set on fire.
“The security establishment system is highly alert,” a security official told i24NEWS. “We are seeing an escalation on the ground – and if you cannot leave a military vehicle in a Jewish community without it being burned in the sector, it is a sign that the situation is dangerous.”
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Israel Orders Evacuations in Northern Gaza as Trump Calls for War to End
US President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing-in ceremony of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, May 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza on Sunday before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.
“Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel’s offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages.
But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and U.N. officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe.
“The (Israeli) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations,” the military said.
The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army’s bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives arrived to pay their respects to white-shrouded bodies before they are buried.
“A month ago, they (Israel) told us to go to Al-Mawasi (in Khan Younis) and we stayed there for a month, it is a safe zone,” said Zeyad Abu Marouf. He said three of his children were killed and a fourth was wounded in the Israeli airstrike.
“We ask God and the Arabs to move and end this occupation and the injustice taking place against us,” Abu Marouf told Reuters.
NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH
The military escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas.
Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened following US and Israeli bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
There has also been rising concern over how aid is being distributed to Gazans in the ruined enclave. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the past month in the vicinity of areas where food was being handed out, local hospitals and officials have said.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group’s outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory.
Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war. Israel says it can only end the war if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
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Russia Launches Largest Drone Attack Yet Against Ukraine, Kills F-16 Pilot
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
i24 News – Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia launched 537 drones and missiles against targets throughout Ukraine overnight between Saturday and Sunday, in what what described as the largest attack of the war.
Poland activated aerial defenses and scrambled jets as the six-hour onslaught continued. One Ukrainian F-16 pilot was killed as Kyiv attempted to intercept the missiles and drones, with 475 shot down.
“Tragically, while repelling the attack, our F-16 pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, died. Today, he destroyed seven aerial targets,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Ustymenko did everything possible, but his jet was damaged and started losing altitude,” the air force said, as quoted in Politico. “He died like a hero!”
The cities of Cherkasy, Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Kyiv were targeted.
The Russia attack came after Ukraine attacked the Kirovske airfield in the Crimean Peninsula, targeting air defenses, drones, and even destroying several helicopters and an air defense system.
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