New York Times reveals secrets of new Hamas cells in the West Bank
In the dimly lit alleys of the West Bank, Palestinian fighters armed with black nylon cover these alleys to hide from Israeli drones flying overhead. Green Hamas flags hang and banners commemorate the martyrs from the buildings, many of which have been heavily damaged during Israeli airstrikes and raids in an attempt to suppress the growing extremism in the sector, fueled by the war in Gaza.
According to the American newspaper, this is not Gaza or a traditional stronghold of Hamas. It is a refugee camp in Tulkarm, a town located in the West Bank occupied by Israel, where the relatively moderate Palestinian Fatah movement has long held influence. However, it seems that the increased Israeli violence in Gaza to curb Hamas and eliminate it has had opposite results, spreading the movement’s ideology of armed resistance to the West Bank.
Boosting Hamas
Recently, the American newspaper met with a local leader of these young militants, 25-year-old Mohammed Jaber, in one of these dusty, broken alleys. He and other fighters like him, who are among the most wanted men in Israel, have shifted their allegiances from the relatively moderate Fatah movement, which dominates the West Bank occupied by Israel, to more extremist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad since the brutal war in the sector. When asked about the lessons learned from the war in Gaza, Jaber paused for a moment to think and said, “Patience, strength, and courage.”
The newspaper continued that refugee camps in northern West Bank, like those in Tulkarm, have been centers of armed resistance for many years, long before the war in Gaza, where fighters have constantly countered Israeli settlement activity and the failure of peace efforts to establish a peaceful Palestinian state. After October 7, Hamas urged Palestinians to join its uprising against Israel, a call that seems to have been answered by some in these camps.
It pointed out that militants like Jaber want to drive Israelis out of the West Bank, which Israel occupied after the 1967 war, and some, like Hamas, want to expel Israelis from the entire area.
Hamas Cells
The American newspaper confirmed that more weapons and explosives are being manufactured in the West Bank, according to the fighters themselves and Israeli military officials.
They say that the Palestinian Authority, dominated by Fatah, which manages parts of the West Bank, is losing ground to more hardline Palestinian factions actively fighting Israel.
Jaber, widely known by his nom de guerre Abu Shuja, leads the local branch of the Islamic Jihad movement, which dominates Tulkarm camp, and he leads a group of all armed factions in that area, including the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades there, known as Al-Khatiba.
He said that he turned from Fatah because Islamic Jihad and Hamas are the ones carrying the fight to Israel to end the occupation and establish Palestine with the strength of arms.
Jaber gained a kind of religious status in the spring when the Israeli army announced that it had killed him during an airstrike on the Tulkarm camp. Three days later, he emerged alive at the funeral of other Palestinians killed in the same raid, amid cries of joy from camp residents.
