Written by Majid Kayali

203 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army gunfire since the beginning of 2022 until now, 150 in the West Bank and 52 in Gaza, compared to 29 Israelis. This number is considered high for Israelis, compared to previous years. In 2021, 21 Israelis were killed, in 2020, three were killed, in 2019, 12 were killed, in 2018, 16 were killed, in 2017, 18 were killed, in 2016, 17 were killed, and in 2015, 29 were killed. (“Yedioth Ahronoth,” 11/24/2022), and also by reducing the difference in human casualties, which was high in previous years, to the benefit of Israel, as there was one Israeli dead for every 21 Palestinians, while this year it became one Israeli dead for every seven Palestinians. 

However, this situation does not cover reality, as Israel has military power and dominates the Palestinians, their resources, and their movements. The human losses of the Palestinians during the years 2006-2021, including the wars launched by Israel in Gaza (with the victims of the return marches between 2018-2019, amounted to 7,269 Palestinians, at a rate of 484 Palestinians annually, compared to Israel’s loss of 340 Israelis, at a rate of 23 annually, meaning that the losses of the Palestinians are 21 times as great (one Israeli for 21 Palestinians), noting that the number of wounded Palestinians reached 104,919, while among the Israelis it reached 3,143. That is, the Palestinian wounded constitute 23 times the Israeli wounded, knowing that the Palestinian injuries are more severe or more harmful.

What happened this year was a wave of bold guerrilla operations, in which firearms were often used. They were characterized by individualism and independence from the factions. They often targeted soldiers and settlers, and sometimes included Israeli cities. They were initiated by people from the younger generation, most of whom grew up after the second intifada (2000-2004). It is an extension of the waves that the occupied Palestinian territories have witnessed since 2015, and they were also characterized by individualism, but with the use of knives and trampling, all of which are considered an extension of the popular uprisings that the Palestinian territories witnessed, especially in Jerusalem.

In this context, three operations can be counted in the month of March of this year. The first was carried out by Muhammad Abu al-Qia’an in Beersheba, in which four soldiers were killed. The second was carried out by Ibrahim and Amin Agbariya in Hadera (near Tel Aviv), in which two Israelis were killed. The third It was carried out by Zia Hamarsheh (from Jenin) in Bnei Brak (near Tel Aviv), and five Israelis were killed. In April, Raad Hazem (Jenin Camp) carried out an operation in Tel Aviv, which mobilized the army and security, and led to the killing of 3 Israelis and the wounding of 15 of them. The month of May witnessed an operation carried out by prisoners Asaad Al-Rifai and Subhi Imad in the Elad settlement, east of Tel Aviv. In which 3 Israelis were killed and 4 wounded. Also, the month of October witnessed the implementation of 3 operations. On the 8th of October, the martyr Uday al-Tamimi, from Shuafat Camp (near Jerusalem), carried out an operation in occupied Jerusalem that resulted in the death of an Israeli and the injury of two, and on the 11th of that month the “Lions’ Den” group carried out an operation in occupied Jerusalem that resulted in the death of an Israeli and the injury of two. (Nablus) An operation near the Shafi Shomron settlement, northwest of Nablus, led to the killing of an Israeli. On November 15, Muhammad Souf carried out a stabbing attack in the Ariel settlement established on the land of the city of Salfit in the northern occupied West Bank, during which he killed three settlers and seriously injured three others.

After all these operations came the two bombing operations in Jerusalem (23 of this month), at two bus stations, resulting in the death of one Israeli and the injury of 22, using explosives, and with a random target, in contrast to the operations that focused on targeting soldiers and settlers. Also, the previous operations were initiated by independent, daring young men, while this operation suggests that there is an entity behind it, often, without anyone knowing its uses in these circumstances.

In any case, Israel, with its insistence on continuing its occupational, racist and oppressive policies against the Palestinians, including preventing the possibility of establishing a state for them in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip while continuing its settlement, confiscation of land, arrest and violation of sanctities, is the primary responsible for everything that is happening, as it is the one causing the state of suffering. The oppression, injustice, and anger that have been simmering in the hearts of the Palestinians for decades, since the establishment of Israel (1948), which worsened after its occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (1967), so resistance is a natural reaction to all of these policies, according to the history of peoples, and international norms and conventions. However, talking about resistance raises several issues:

First, realizing that resistance is not limited to the armed action of military groups, as it is more effective and correct for it to be the resistance of a people using available means, that is, characterized by sustainability, and which enable it to exhaust its enemy rather than enable it to exhaust its people, by facilitating the use of its overwhelming superiority (with the military machine), and so that It does not burden its people beyond what they can bear, in unfavorable international and local circumstances. 

Secondly, let us note that the resistance of the Palestinian people is the product of a long, arduous and costly experience, one hundred years old (57 years of the contemporary national experience), which means that the leaders of the resistance (and all Palestinians) are required to study this experience and draw the desired lessons from it, which is something that did not happen. As evidenced by the Palestinians’ lack of an appropriate, clear, and feasible military strategy, and as evidence of the confusion in the resistance between spontaneity and moodiness, between bombing operations, missile shelling, guerrilla operations, popular uprisings and uprisings, without any coherence, and without being able to put sacrifices and heroism within the framework of investing in achievements. Concrete political.

Third, there is an important observation that Israel’s human and moral losses from separate guerrilla operations carried out by individual youth, without enabling Israel to launch a devastating military campaign against the Palestinians, exceeded Israel’s losses from missile operations, which is reminiscent of the “Wadi al-Thieves” operation ( Between Nablus and Ramallah - March 2002), which was carried out by Thaer Hammad, with a primitive rifle, and at that time he was able to kill 11 Israelis. Thus, let us note, for example, the wars on Gaza. In the first war, which lasted 23 days (late 2008), 13 Israelis were killed, and in the second war, which lasted eight days (2012), three Israelis were killed, and in the third war, which lasted 50 days, 70 Israelis were killed. (Including 8 by missile bombardment), and in the fourth war against the backdrop of the gift of Jerusalem and the defense of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood (2021), which lasted 11 days, 12 Israelis were killed, and in the fifth war (August of this year), the “Islamic Jihad” movement fought it alone with missile bombardment. It lasted for three days, and no one was killed.

Of course, in all of these wars, Israel deliberately bombed the cities of the Gaza Strip with barbaric and destructive bombardment, which resulted in very heavy losses in lives, property, and infrastructure. As we have seen, the shift towards missile war cut off the popular uprising, which included the Palestinians of 1948 this time more than any previous time, and also led to the Palestinians of 1948 targeting Israelis, both civilian and military, in their towns and villages. Perhaps the phenomenon of the rise of Ben Gvir and his extremist fascist party is the result of some of the repercussions of those confrontations, knowing that Ben Gvir will take over the Ministry of Internal Security, expanding it to include the establishment of the so-called National Guard, whose goal is to prevent any popular uprising or movements by the Palestinians, especially in 1948. The separation wall, the deployment of settlement points and bypass roads, the disengagement from Gaza and the imposition of a strict siege on it were Israel’s response to the bombing operations during the Second Intifada (2000-2004), especially the Sbarro restaurant and Dolphin nightclub attacks in Jerusalem (summer 2001), which took place Then the siege was imposed on Yasser Arafat in his headquarters in Ramallah, and everything that happened after that.

In short, resistance is a political act par excellence for human beings, and it must be criticized, desacralized, and subjected to a political and military strategy. Otherwise, it will fall into traps and dangers that benefit Israel. This includes the kidnapping of a Palestinian, one of the “citizens” of Israel, under the pretext that he is Israeli, as happened recently (unfortunately), knowing that this harms the unity of the Palestinian people, their image, and the justice of their cause. This also includes the fall of a shell on a house in Gaza, or the targeting of Israeli civilians. Khaled Meshaal (former leader of the “Hamas” movement) previously confirmed that his movement avoided this (2014), just as the “Jihad” movement previously avoided this in an operation that targeted military personnel (11 of whom were killed), and avoided civilians/religious people. 

It is time for the Palestinians to study their reality and review their experience in a critical manner, including realizing that resistance is a popular and responsible act, and requires choosing the possible, most appropriate and most effective form of resistance, according to capabilities and data, including investing in the Israeli contradictions and not uniting the Israelis around the extreme right. Also, in the meantime, it is necessary to understand the nature of the political situation, international and local. What do the factions have in the event that Israel, with an extremist fascist government, attempts to uproot Palestinians from this or that region, in Jerusalem, Hebron, or any other place? Is there immunity for the Palestinians from any new “transfer” plan (God forbid), while we are witnessing the displacement of millions of Syrians from their country in front of the world’s eyes and eyes?