“Israel’s Second Front”, Frontline
Ramita Navai, PBS, January 24, 2024
This program contains mature content which may not be suitable for all audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.
Transcript:
MALE NEWSREADER:
Fresh rounds of strikes have been launched at Gaza as Israel warns of a long and difficult war ahead.
MALE NEWSREADER:
Now there are reports that the fighting has intensified, airstrikes as well as ground fighting near many of the hospitals.
RAMITA NAVAI, Correspondent:
I arrived in the region weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, as fears were rising that the war in Gaza could spread.
MALE NEWSREADER:
Nothing untouched in the fury of Israel’s hunt for Hamas. The streets here crushed—
RAMITA NAVAI:
Israel was launching operations against militants here in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank, which many were concerned could explode into a second front.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
Israeli forces have continued their raids in the occupied West Bank, killing at least six Palestinians.
RAMITA NAVAI:
I headed to Tulkarem, where there’d been recent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters. Before Oct. 7, Hamas didn’t have much of a presence in the West Bank, which is dominated by their bitter political rivals, the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah Party. I wanted to investigate how support for Hamas—and other militant groups—was changing.
There was an Israeli raid here in Tulkarem yesterday. Seven Palestinians were killed, and we’re about to join a funeral procession up ahead.
I was told the number of Hamas fighters here is small, but many of the young men in the crowd were armed. They were members of the Tulkarem Brigade, one of the new, locally based groups that have emerged in the West Bank over the last two years.
In the procession they carried the bodies of two fighters who’d been killed the night before. In a show of solidarity, they waved Hamas’ green banner, and the dead fighters were wrapped in Hamas flags.
After the funeral, some of the fighters from the Tulkarem Brigade agreed to talk to me, as long as we didn’t identify them. They spoke admiringly about Hamas’ military strength.
TULKAREM FIGHTER:
[Speaking Arabic] We see victory ahead of us, and God’s victory is near.
RAMITA NAVAI:
They said the war was galvanizing them.
TULKAREM FIGHTER:
[Speaking Arabic] As young people, we respect anyone actively fighting the enemy, whether from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP or any party. As fighters, we are sons of the Palestinian people. Our focus is on resisting the occupation, not on political parties or specific individuals.
RAMITA NAVAI:
Can you tell me what’s happening in terms of the differences between the armed groups since the Oct. 7 attacks?
TULKAREM FIGHTER:
[Speaking Arabic] People are more encouraged to join armed struggle. Everyone began noticing us and joining in. Thank God, our numbers are growing.
RAMITA NAVAI:
One of the fighters, a 22-year-old called Mohammed, took us through the streets to show us where three men had been killed the day before. He said they were civilians; the Israeli military said they were hurling explosives.
MOHAMMED:
[Speaking Arabic] See, the missile struck right there, and the young men were standing here. Just watching. They were just civilians.
FEMALE SPEAKER:
[Speaking Arabic] I told them to be careful and avoid gathering as it’s not a good idea.
RAMITA NAVAI:
I wanted to find out what residents thought about the militants. The streets had been torn up, the electricity and water lines cut by Israeli bulldozers, which the military says it uses to destroy explosives.
ABDULRAHMAN ABDRABBOH:
We have no water. We have no electricity. What is their justification to damage the street?
RAMITA NAVAI:
Abdulrahman Abdrabboh is an English teacher. He told me that during their raids, Israeli forces routinely leave neighborhoods in ruins.
What do you think of the young men joining these new militias here?
ABDULRAHMAN ABDRABBOH:
For me, it is a reaction to the Israeli occupation and to the suffering we are undergoing every day.
If Israeli violence against Palestinians continues, more and more people will join the violence.
RAMITA NAVAI:
What I heard in Tulkarem was echoed across the West Bank, land captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It’s still under Israeli military control but widely seen as the basis of a future Palestinian state. It’s now home to some 2 1/2 million Palestinians and half a million Israeli settlers.
Under the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the settlements have been expanding. And adding to the tensions since Oct. 7, there have been hundreds of reported attacks by extremist settlers against Palestinians.
One incident that sparked outrage happened on Oct. 11, in Qusrah. Masked settlers entered the village and began shooting. Over several hours—much of it captured on video—four Palestinian residents were killed.
Abdel Hakim Wadi lives in Qusrah. He says this video shows his brother and nephew being ambushed and killed by settlers the next day as they took the four bodies for burial.
ABDUL HAKIM WADI:
[Speaking Arabic] I was shocked that my brother and his son were martyred, and they wouldn’t be with us anymore, not in this lifetime, at least. [Cries] The increased attacks by settlers mean we are in uncharted territory. The future appears uncertain, and we are unsure of what lies ahead.
RAMITA NAVAI:
The Israeli military, which has outposts less than half a mile away from Qusrah, has said they’re investigating the killings.
Ramallah, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. The PA governs over a third of the West Bank under interim agreements with Israel. But since Oct. 7, Netanyahu has ruled out working with them towards establishing a Palestinian state. And among Palestinians, the PA has long been seen as ineffective and corrupt. A recent poll in the West Bank shows increasing support for armed struggle.
Khalil Shikaki conducted that poll. He’s tracked Palestinian public opinion for decades.
PROF. KHALIL SHIKAKI, Director, Palestinian Center for Policy & Survey Research:
The level of support for armed struggle in the West Bank before October the 7th stood at about 54%. Today, it is almost 70%. We’ve seen, therefore, about 14-15 percentage point increase.
The perception is that there is today no political or diplomatic option available to Palestinians. If Palestinians are unhappy with the status quo, the only way to change it is violence, armed struggle, formation of armed groups. That is a fundamental reasoning that the overwhelming majority of the Palestinians today fully endorse.
RAMITA NAVAI:
While most Palestinians don’t agree with Hamas’ radical Islamist agenda, their support in the West Bank has also grown from 12% to 44% since Oct. 7.
How can you square the increase in popularity for Hamas with the brutality of the Oct. 7 attacks?
KHALIL SHIKAKI:
Those who saw the videos were 10 times more likely to come to the conclusion that Hamas committed atrocities. Ten times more likely than those who did not. The majority of Palestinians today, however, does not buy into the Israeli narrative of what happened on October the 7th.
RAMITA NAVAI:
As the death toll in Gaza has reached into the thousands, Friday prayers in Ramallah have often been followed by demonstrations.
CROWD [chanting]:
[Speaking Arabic] Fight bullets with bullets. Hamas, we are your men.
RAMITA NAVAI:
One of the chants here has been “you say Hamas are terrorists, we say the whole of the West Bank are Hamas.” And what’s interesting is that there are lots of different political groups here, some secular, and they’re all demonstrating side by side with Hamas supporters.
On the fringes of the protest were the Palestinian Authority security forces. Hamas violently ousted the PA from Gaza 16 years ago.
A demonstration like this, chanting support for Hamas, would never have happened before the Oct. 7 attack, because it would have been met by violence from the Palestinian Authority. And what’s extraordinary is that they’re letting this happen. They’re just standing by because they know opinion here has changed and the tensions are so high.
CROWD [chanting]:
[Speaking Arabic] Hamas. Hamas.
RAMITA NAVAI:
Mustafa Barghouti is an opposition politician who’s been critical of the Palestinian Authority and its leader, President Mahmoud Abbas.
MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI, Co-founder, Palestinian National Initiative party:
They’re frightened by the fact that they are so weak and that the public is angry at them because of their passivity and lack of initiative when their people are slaughtered in Gaza. The Palestinian Authority was already weak before the 7th of October. They’re mostly weak because Israel weakens them, because Israel humiliates them every time they invade cities that are supposed to be under the Palestinian Authority.
RAMITA NAVAI:
Support for Hamas is growing in the West Bank. Why do you think that is?
MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI:
You shouldn’t mix between two things, the support for Hamas and the support to the principle of resistance. People want to end occupation and they want to have the right to resist occupation. And that’s why they support anybody who resists occupation.
RAMITA NAVAI:
I went to the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters to meet with the president’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh. He blamed the rising support for militant groups on Israel.
NABIL ABU RUDEINEH, Deputy Prime Minister:
They are invading our country. Since October the 7th, more than 280 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, 280 Palestinians were killed. Hundreds of houses were demolished. If they are ready for peace, we are ready. If they are not, things will change, and nobody will live peacefully. And we keep saying peace for everybody or no peace for anybody. Security for everybody, or no security for anybody.
RAMITA NAVAI:
He denied that Hamas is a threat to the PA’s authority.
Why do you think support for Hamas is growing here in the West Bank?
NABIL ABU RUDEINEH:
Don’t listen—I know you have the right to ask any questions, and I’m ready to answer it. But I have to tell you, don’t listen to this, to many things around you here and there. Once we have elections, elections will decide who has popularity or who doesn’t have.
RAMITA NAVAI:
Not far from the PA headquarters, one night I attended a demonstration protesting the war in Gaza.
CROWD [chanting]:
[Speaking Arabic] My people blow up tanks. My people blow up tanks.
RAMITA NAVAI:
During the march, I met Afaf Ghatasha, a women’s rights activist.
AFAF GHATASHA:
[Speaking Arabic] I don’t agree with Hamas socially or intellectually. I don’t agree with Hamas democratically. However, I agree with them about their resistance program. And I agree with Hamas that we are people under occupation for the past 75 years and this occupation must end.
RAMITA NAVAI:
Several days later, in late November, Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary cease-fire. One night during that cease-fire, Hamas said it would release 24 of the estimated 240 hostages it was holding. In exchange, Israel would release 39 Palestinian prisoners.
Just up there is Ofer Prison, where some of the prisoners are going to be released, and you can see that people have started to gather here. And as you can see, loads of people here are holding up Hamas flags, and just a hundred meters in front of them are Israeli soldiers who are at war with Hamas.
We climbed a hill overlooking the Israeli prison. Suddenly, an Israeli drone dropped tear gas canisters. We ran to the town below. There was more tear gas, and live fire which wounded several people.
The crowd’s just being dispersed, you can hear, by tear gas. I can start—starting to feel it now.
Near Ramallah, a crowd waited to welcome the prisoners, who were women and teenagers. When they arrived, they were paraded through the streets.
CROWD [chanting]:
[Speaking Arabic] Welcome, welcome, welcome. Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas.
RAMITA NAVAI:
I traveled to Tel Aviv. The public displays here are of the hundreds of people killed by Hamas on Oct. 7 and the hostages still being held in Gaza. I met a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren. He said Israelis see the ongoing military campaign in the West Bank as a matter of survival.
What’s the rationale for the widespread Israeli military incursions in the West Bank?
MICHAEL OREN, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., 2009-13:
Security. Security. We forget that in the months leading up to the events of Oct. 7, Israel lost some 40 citizens and soldiers to Palestinian terrorist attacks. And there were reports of very large-scale terrorist attacks that were planned within Israel proper, including Tel Aviv, that were thwarted.
We’re sitting here in south Tel Aviv. If you go up to my upstairs office and look out the eastern-facing window, you see Hebron. That’s how close we are. We won’t be in rocket range; we’ll be in rifle range.
RAMITA NAVAI:
I asked him about the role of settler violence in the rising tensions in the West Bank.
MICHAEL OREN:
I want to be unequivocal about this. This is unacceptable and, again, causes us strategic damage. It’s a danger to our security. Again, it’s—You cannot generalize about the settlers. We’re talking about close to 500,000 people. The vast, vast majority of them are law abiding, do not support this violence. But yes, there are elements there. And they have support within the government.
RAMITA NAVAI:
Since Oct. 7, the IDF have arrested thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, including around 1,300 they say are affiliated with Hamas. But Palestinian sources say that many of those arrested aren’t linked to any crimes.
I met a former senior intelligence officer who specialized in the Palestinian territories. Orna Mizrahi said Hamas and other militants aren’t just a threat to Israel, but to the Palestinians, too.
ORNA MIZRAHI, Institute for National Security Studies, Israel:
Hamas groups, militant groups, terrorists, as we see them, they want the collapse of the PA, the collapse of the more moderate Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. This is what their goal was, and this is what the IDF is fighting against.
RAMITA NAVAI:
But many civilians are being killed in these incursions.
ORNA MIZRAHI:
There is not intention in doing it, but it happens. Sometimes it happens. And I tell you, as one who is coming from the army, that there is a big effort to prevent these accidents, but sometimes they happen.
RAMITA NAVAI:
In the West Bank, the IDF has repeatedly targeted the Jenin refugee camp looking for wanted militants.
Walking around, there are so many houses that have been destroyed by rocket and drone attacks.
Hamas fighters have largely stayed in hiding here, but one of them agreed to talk to me.
We’ve just been told that a member of the al-Qassam Brigade—that’s Hamas’ military wing—is prepared to meet us. People here are saying that’s really unusual.
The man tells me he’s helped lead Hamas’ recruitment efforts in Jenin.
AL-QASSAM FIGHTER:
[Speaking Arabic] We started the al-Qassam brigade with seven or eight people, and we slowly built up our numbers until there were 40 to 50 in the Jenin camp. The gear we can provide our fighters with is in the Jenin camp and province.
RAMITA NAVAI:
He said his men were biding their time—and gave a veiled warning to the Palestinian Authority.
AL-QASSAM FIGHTER:
[Speaking Arabic] We are able to defend ourselves against Israeli airplanes, tanks and bulldozers. So, we can easily defend ourselves against someone weaker.
RAMITA NAVAI:
While I was in Jenin, Israeli forces launched another raid.
The Israeli forces are coming, there’s going to be a raid. We’ve got to run now.
The streets emptied.
I can see a column of bulldozers, and they’re working their way to the refugee camp. There’s thick smoke all around us, and that’s tires burning, and that’s stopping the drones from being able to see what’s going on down here.
In the morning, we went to investigate. The fighting hadn’t stopped.
We were at the camp entrance and then gunfire started.
The Israeli military said it killed two high-ranking terrorists in the operation. Two boys, a 15-year-old and an 8-year-old, were also killed.
Two months later, in January, I returned to the West Bank, amid a new wave of violence and major IDF operations.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
Fears of a regional war in the Middle East are growing after—
RAMITA NAVAI:
Tensions across the region were reaching new heights.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
—has been killed in an explosion in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
RAMITA NAVAI:
A Hamas leader with ties to the West Bank was assassinated in Lebanon, sparking protests and violence.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
He was a founder of the military wing of Hamas.
RAMITA NAVAI:
Clashes with Hezbollah militants backed by Iran had led thousands of Israelis to evacuate from the north.
MALE NEWSREADER:
Evacuations in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks—
RAMITA NAVAI:
While Houthi rebels in Yemen fired missiles to protest the war in Gaza.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
—a punishing series of U.S. and British strikes, the first sign of retaliation.
RAMITA NAVAI:
Back in Tulkarem, I found Mohammed, the fighter who had showed me around.
MOHAMMED:
[Speaking Arabic] They started to attack us with missiles. This has never happened before. They attack us with missiles and we don’t have missiles.
RAMITA NAVAI:
He told me one of the other fighters I’d met had recently been killed by an Israeli drone.
MOHAMMED:
[Speaking Arabic] It fell from above the cover. He was here. Here, exactly.
RAMITA NAVAI:
It was his brother.
Two days later, Mohammed was also killed.
In Jerusalem I went to see Sari Nusseibeh, a well-known Palestinian scholar and philosopher.
How critical is the point we’ve now reached?
SARI NUSSEIBEH:
Critical. It’s—I hope it’s, we’ve passed the critical stage between the Israelis and the Palestinians of the war that’s raging in Gaza. And I hope that after this, the world will open its eyes to the need to step in and do something here. If it doesn’t, if there’s no solution, if there’s no solution to the conflict, I think it’ll just get worse in time. You never know how a situation of war can actually drive people to act. Things are boiling, simmering. And I think the wise thing to do for everybody concerned, local and international players, is to try and contain this before it explodes.