The mourners attended the funeral of the Palestinians who lost their lives as a result of the Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus last night. The Israeli military said it was targeting an emerging armed group called Lions’ Den.
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Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images
The mourners attended the funeral of the Palestinians who lost their lives as a result of the Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus last night. The Israeli military said it was targeting an emerging armed group called Lions’ Den.
Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images
TEL AVIV – This year has been the deadliest year Palestinians have lived in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in years. But a brazen Israeli special forces operation that killed at least five Palestinians, including one militant, and injured 20 before dawn on Tuesday, has been the bloodiest conflict in the West Bank this year.
Israel’s target was not one of its usual suspects, like the militant groups Hamas or Islamic Jihad. It was the Lions’ Den, a new renegade group of armed young men, most of them young and in their early 20s. They’re few in number—analysts estimate between 50 and 100—but their impact is large.
Lions’ Den militants opened fire on Israeli troops and checkpoints and took refuge in the narrow alleys of the old kasbah in the West Bank city of Nablus. The Israeli military said it shot and killed at least one soldier of the group.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid told Israeli Army Radio on Tuesday that most of the country’s forces are now focused on their own pursuit. “This was a deadly precision attack on the heart of a terrorist cell that was trying to stage attacks,” Lapid said in a statement on Tuesday’s raid in which the Israeli army killed the 31-year-old Lions’ Den leader, Wadee. al-huh.
The Israeli military used shoulder-launched missiles during the raid and claimed to have blown up what it said was a bomb lab.
Israeli soldiers continued their operation, saying they had arrested three suspected Lions’ Den agents in Nablus early Wednesday.
The escalating violence came less than a week before the Israeli elections on November 1st.
Here’s a brief look at the Lions’ Den and what the future might hold for the West Bank.
The younger generation thinks they have little to lose
Palestinian analysts and local community leaders in Nablus describe the group as a new generation of Palestinians who feel they have little to lose.
1/ Kasbah #Nablus It is a warren of shops selling candied pumpkins and sweet cheese knives. Now a young generation of Palestinians with guns patrols its streets.
This year, they became Israel’s most wanted men. Following them resulted in bloodshed at levels not seen in years. pic.twitter.com/BP7bHg8SIv
— Daniel Estrin (@DanielEstrin) 29 September 2022
They have no personal memories of the costly intifada of the early 2000s to warn them against violence. They grew up after Israel erected the wall and fence barrier and tightened the entry permit regime, so some of their only interactions with Israelis are with invading soldiers or often hostile settlers. Analysts say they came of age under an entrenched Palestinian leadership that thwarted elections and offered no clear path to independence.
Jamal Tirawi said, “There is a lack of trust in any political horizon and in the Palestinian Authority. This has prompted Palestinian youth to start their own initiative and their own struggle against the Israeli occupation. And they have taken the authority into their own hands.” A prominent activist in Nablus and a critic of the Palestinian leadership told NPR.
The group’s aim is to confront Israeli soldiers operating in Palestinian territories and to offer an alternative to the behavior of official Palestinian security forces that do not engage with Israeli soldiers conducting arrest raids.
They gathered a huge TikTok following
The Den of Lions emerged earlier this year when Israel launched almost nightly military raids to track down Palestinian militants amid a wave of deadly attacks on Israelis. According to the Israeli military, instead of the usual response of Palestinian youth – stones and hand-made explosives – these young men instead started shooting at the troops and used M-16s smuggled out of the Israeli army.
The first Lions’ Den militant to come forward was 18-year-old Ibrahim al-Nabulsi. He evaded several Israeli arrest attempts, then publicly walked the streets of Nablus as crowds followed and filmed him on the social media app TikTok. Israeli special forces had killed him in the town of Nablus in August. Now young Palestinians in Nablus wear necklaces with his portrait.
Ibrahim al-Nabulsi in Nablus on 24 July.
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Ibrahim al-Nabulsi in Nablus on 24 July.
AFP via Getty Images
Recently, in the Lions’ Den, Palestinians took to the streets at a certain hour on social media and said, “God is the greatest!” when he called to shout. – calls were largely taken into account. Admiration for the group for the TikTok generation is viral.
Israel says stalking Lions’ Den sparks a ‘cycle of violence’
Ronen Bar, Israel’s Shin Bet head of internal security, acknowledged the “cycle of violence” in a recent speech. He said Israeli soldiers went after the militants as the Palestinian Authority rejected the forces, which further undermined the Palestinian security forces and leadership, leading to clashes and more Palestinian casualties.
United Nations initiatives. to search for the calm. The Palestinian Authority mayor of Nablus recently met with members of the Lions’ Den and asked them to negotiate an amnesty with Israel if they hand over themselves and their weapons to the Palestinian security forces. Militants reportedly rejected the offer.
These dynamics reflect a leadership vacuum in the West Bank and provide clues as to what could happen.
The old guard – the Palestinian Authority and police forces – is losing credibility and also losing control over pockets of the West Bank, like the old city of Nablus. Meanwhile, young militants are becoming more assertive. Israel is launching more targeted attacks against militants, and has even recently partially blocked Nablus in an attempt to contain them.
“Terrorists acting against us [the West Bank] There are two alternatives you should know: either prison or grave. They will end in either one,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Israeli Channel 12 TV on Tuesday.
While Israel is determined to destroy the Lions’ Den, the real significance of the armed group is not the numbers but the sparking inspiration among Palestinians in the West Bank.
Finally, occupied Palestinians say they have heroes they can rally around.
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