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The World Needs a ‘Day After’ Plan — for the West Bank

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appoints Mohammad Mustafa as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in Ramallah, in the West Bank March 14, 2024 in this handout image. Photo: Palestinian president office/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Discussions of the “day after” in Gaza overlook the equally important issue of the day after in the West Bank (referred to by Israel as Judea and Samaria). The Palestinian government in the West Bank is headed for upheaval.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was elected in 2005 to serve a four-year term but still clings to power 20 years later without authority. This longstanding disregard of democracy has undermined the PA’s legitimacy in two respects. First, the PA cannot credibly claim to represent the Palestinian people. Second, the refusal to hold elections violates the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords of 1993, which created the PA as an interim Palestinian body that would end Palestinian terrorism and promote Palestinian human development in areas such as health, education, and policing.
The unelected PA — along with its controlling Fatah party — are widely regarded by Palestinians as corrupt, inept, and oblivious. Disturbingly, it is Fatah’s rival, the Hamas terrorist organization, that is more respected among Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza.
Although Hamas ignores the demands of human development in favor of its ongoing war of terror against Israel, Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 invasion of Israel has only driven the terror group’s popularity to new heights. In 2006, the last time the PA held elections, Hamas won a majority of seats in the legislature, but Fatah ignored the outcome. The next year, Hamas violently ousted the PA’s Fatah representatives from Gaza. As a result, the PA has no control over Gaza — and has evidenced no intention of holding elections in the West Bank, likely because the vote would favor Hamas.
Hamas also enjoys a military edge over Fatah, thanks in part to a torrent of weapons that has been smuggled into the West Bank, where the terror group has many operatives, from Iran at an accelerated pace. The weapons not only help Hamas and related terror groups defy the PA but also enable them to wage vastly more terrorist attacks on Israelis. Terror cells in the West Bank and Jerusalem attempted fewer than 400 terror attacks in 2021 and fewer than 500 in 2022 but over 1,000 in 2023 and over 1,000 again in 2024. Meanwhile, pursuant to the recent Hamas-Israel ceasefire agreement in Gaza, Israel has begun to free what could ultimately be thousands of convicted Palestinian terrorists, some of whom are Hamas loyalists returning to the West Bank.
The PA has tried to combat the West Bank terror cells without obstructing their attacks on Israel, but the strategy has failed.
Compounding the PA’s predicament, Abbas is 89 years old and in poor health. His supposed successor is considered a mere placeholder with no political backing.
Given these circumstances, Hamas could launch an insurrection in the West Bank similar to the violence it inflicted to evict the PA from Gaza. Even without a PA regime change, the ongoing escalation in West Bank-originated terror attacks could well culminate in another Oct. 7-style invasion, as Hamas itself has already warned.
Until this year, Israel has propped up the PA to preserve the scaffolding of the Oslo Accords and avoid the rise of more extreme West Bank Palestinian elements. Now it appears the extremist nightmare is coming true.
Faced with this existential threat, Israel’s options are limited. It cannot force Palestinians to elect a new PA, renounce terrorism, or prioritize their Oslo-enshrined human development tasks. Nor can it afford to wait and see if Abbas is replaced by someone better. Israel is struggling to survive a prolonged seven-front war with unpredictable support from the US and opposition from world bodies such as the UN.
Fortunately, Israel benefits from two sources of lawful self-defense. One is Article 51 of the UN Charter. Under Article 51, Israel may use military force in Gaza and the West Bank to repel armed attacks against Israelis within the Green Line such as occurred on Oct. 7, 2023. In addition, a section of the Oslo Accords titled Arrangements for Security and Public Order authorizes Israel to use “all the powers … necessary” to protect the 500,000 Israelis living in the West Bank.
The above provisions clearly validate Israel’s plan to build a security barrier along its border with Jordan to help prevent weapons smuggling. These provisions also permit the new strategy of deterrence Israel has unveiled in the West Bank town of Jenin. In the Jenin mission, called Operation Iron Wall, the Israel Defense Force aims to eliminate a terrorist stronghold rather than merely reduce the number and lethality of its terror attacks. Operation Iron Wall is characterized by larger contingents of IDF troops, deeper incursions into enemy territory, longer lasting surgical raids, and more intensive firepower, including air strikes and tank rounds.
By neglecting the Oslo Accords, the PA has deprived its people of a legitimate leadership committed to disarming terrorists and serving Palestinian needs. An all-out war between Hamas and Fatah, which appears increasingly likely, may expose Palestinian civilians to terrorist attacks by Hamas and to harm from Israel’s legitimate responsive efforts to thwart those attacks. Whether or not Hamas overpowers the PA, if the militants batter Israel with another Oct. 7 attack, the West Bank may be left looking like Gaza.
The international community, and in particular moderate Arab states, should intervene to stop the Palestinian train wreck before it’s too late.
Joel M. Margolis is the Legal Commentator, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, US Affiliate of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. His 2001 book, The Israeli-Palestinian Legal War, analyzed the major legal issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previously he worked as a telecommunications lawyer in both the public and private sectors.
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Hamas Warns Against Cooperation with US Relief Efforts In Bid to Restore Grip on Gaza

Hamas terrorists carry grenade launchers at the funeral of Marwan Issa, a senior Hamas deputy military commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip, Feb. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza has warned residents not to cooperate with the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as the terror group seeks to reassert its grip on the enclave amid mounting international pressure to accept a US-brokered ceasefire.
“It is strictly forbidden to deal with, work for, or provide any form of assistance or cover to the American organization (GHF) or its local or foreign agents,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
“Legal action will be taken against anyone proven to be involved in cooperation with this organization, including the imposition of the maximum penalties stipulated in the applicable national laws,” the statement warns.
The GHF released a statement in response to Hamas’ warnings, saying the organization has delivered millions of meals “safely and without interference.”
“This statement from the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry confirms what we’ve known all along: Hamas is losing control,” the GHF said.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May, implementing a new aid delivery model aimed at preventing the diversion of supplies by Hamas, as Israel continues its defensive military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group.
The initiative has drawn criticism from the UN and international organizations, some of which have claimed that Jerusalem is causing starvation in the war-torn enclave.
Israel has vehemently denied such accusations, noting that, until its recently imposed blockade, it had provided significant humanitarian aid in the enclave throughout the war.
Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians.
According to their reports, the organization has delivered over 56 million meals to Palestinians in just one month.
Hamas’s latest threat comes amid growing international pressure to accept a US-backed ceasefire plan proposed by President Donald Trump, which sets a 60-day timeline to finalize the details leading to a full resolution of the conflict.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that Israel has agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalize a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, though Israel has not confirmed this claim.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump next week in Washington, DC — his third visit in less than six months — as they work to finalize the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Even though Trump hasn’t provided details on the proposed truce, he said Washington would “work with all parties to end the war” during the 60-day period.
“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” he wrote in a social media post.
Since the start of the war, ceasefire talks between Jerusalem and Hamas have repeatedly failed to yield enduring results.
Israeli officials have previously said they will only agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms, and goes into exile — a demand the terror group has firmly rejected.
“I am telling you — there will be no Hamas,” Netanyahu said during a speech Wednesday.
For its part, Hamas has said it is willing to release the remaining 50 hostages — fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war.
While the terrorist group said it is “ready and serious” to reach a deal that would end the war, it has yet to accept this latest proposal.
In a statement, the group said it aims to reach an agreement that “guarantees an end to the aggression, the withdrawal [of Israeli forces], and urgent relief for our people in the Gaza Strip.”
According to media reports, the proposed 60-day ceasefire would include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a surge in humanitarian aid, and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, with US and mediator assurances on advancing talks to end the war — though it remains unclear how many hostages would be freed.
For Israel, the key to any deal is the release of most, if not all, hostages still held in Gaza, as well as the disarmament of Hamas, while the terror group is seeking assurances to end the war as it tries to reassert control over the war-torn enclave.
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UK Lawmakers Move to Designate Palestine Action as Terrorist Group Following RAF Vandalism Protest

Police block a street as pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather to protest British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans to proscribe the “Palestine Action” group in the coming weeks, in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
British lawmakers voted Wednesday to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, following the group’s recent vandalizing of two military aircraft at a Royal Air Force base in protest of the government’s support for Israel.
Last month, members of the UK-based anti-Israel group Palestine Action broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, a county west of London, and vandalized two Voyager aircraft used for military transport and refueling — the latest in a series of destructive acts carried out by the organization.
Palestine Action has regularly targeted British sites connected to Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems as well as other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza in 2023.
Under British law, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has the authority to ban an organization if it is believed to commit, promote, or otherwise be involved in acts of terrorism.
Passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 385 to 26 in the lower chamber — the House of Commons — the measure is now set to be reviewed by the upper chamber, the House of Lords, on Thursday.
If approved, the ban would take effect within days, making it a crime to belong to or support Palestine Action and placing the group on the same legal footing as Al Qaeda, Hamas, and the Islamic State under UK law.
Palestine Action, which claims that Britain is an “active participant” in the Gaza conflict due to its military support for Israel, condemned the ban as “an unhinged reaction” and announced plans to challenge it in court — similar to the legal challenges currently being mounted by Hamas.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000, belonging to a proscribed group is a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison or a fine, while wearing clothing or displaying items supporting such a group can lead to up to six months in prison and/or a fine of up to £5,000.
Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the recent attack, in which two of its activists sprayed red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyager aircraft and used crowbars to inflict additional damage.
According to the group, the red paint — also sprayed across the runway — was meant to symbolize “Palestinian bloodshed.” A Palestine Liberation Organization flag was also left at the scene.
On Thursday, local authorities arrested four members of the group, aged between 22 and 35, who were charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK, as well as conspiracy to commit criminal damage.
Palestine Action said this latest attack was carried out as a protest against the planes’ role in supporting what the group called Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
At the time of the attack, Cooper condemned the group’s actions, stating that their behavior had grown increasingly aggressive and resulted in millions of pounds in damages.
“The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton … is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action,” Cooper said in a written statement.
“The UK’s defense enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk,” she continued.
The post UK Lawmakers Move to Designate Palestine Action as Terrorist Group Following RAF Vandalism Protest first appeared on Algemeiner.com.