As all eyes are fixed on the Hamas-Israel war in the Gaza Strip, the Iranian regime and its Palestinian terror proxies are working to move the fighting to the West Bank.
Recently, armed cells belonging to Iranian-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have escalated their terrorist attacks in the West Bank against Israeli soldiers and civilians. The Palestinian groups responsible for the death and destruction in the Gaza Strip over the past two years are even trying to fire rockets from the West Bank into the rest of Israel. The groups and their patrons in Tehran do not care if Palestinians in the West Bank are killed and displaced as a result of their terrorism. Iran's mullahs and their Palestinian proxies have only one thing in mind: murdering Jews and eliminating Israel.
Last week, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they discovered a rocket in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem. Earlier, another rocket was reportedly fired at Israel from the village of Kufr Ni'meh, located near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians. After the attack, IDF forces found dozens of rockets and explosives in a building in the area of Ramallah.
Israeli security sources described the seized weapons and the firing of the rocket as a "game changer" in the West Bank. These sources asserted that Iranian-linked elements were behind the scheme to turn the West Bank into a further battlefield against Israel.
"Intelligence assessments indicate that armed groups in the West Bank are seeking to manufacture rockets locally to target Israeli cities in central and northern Israel, such as Kfar Saba, Ra'anana, Netanya, Hadera, Afula, and Beit She'an... Iran has also reportedly recently supplied mortar shells and ammunition to armed [Palestinian] factions in West Bank cities of Jenin and Tulkarem."
These Palestinian armed groups, known as "The Battalions," are affiliated with the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and several years ago began operating in the West Bank. For the past two years, dozens of their members have been killed or arrested by Israeli security forces. Since the beginning of 2025 the IDF has been waging a relentless war on the terrorist groups, especially in Jenin and Tulkarem. Just when it seemed that the Israeli security forces had succeeded in their mission, the armed groups resurfaced, this time equipped with rockets designed to attack Israeli cities.
In the past week, PIJ's armed wing, Al-Quds Brigades, issued a number of statements in which it claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers. The Jenin Battalion said:
"We detonated explosive devices targeting military reinforcements in the town of Silat ad-Daher near Jenin."
The Ramallah Battalion, for its part, proclaimed:
"Our fighters succeeded at exactly 10.40 AM today in detonating a number of explosive devices of the Sijjil-2 type at a military point near the [Israeli] settlement of Psagot."
It was the first time that Palestinians had heard of the Ramallah Battalion. Until recently, such groups had emerged only in the northern West Bank, especially in the areas of Jenin and Tulkarem. Notably, Ramallah serves as the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority (PA), as well as of its security forces, which have so far failed to prevent the Iranian-backed terrorists from operating in the city.
On September 25, Israeli security forces killed two senior members of PIJ's armed wing in the northern West Bank: Mohammed Qassem and Ala'a Jawdat. PIJ said in a statement after the terrorists were eliminated:
"We affirm that we will remain steadfast on the path of jihad [holy war] and resistance until liberation [of all of Palestine] and the return [of all Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Israel]."
Hamas also mourned the slain terrorists and vowed:
"The assassination of resistance fighters in the West Bank will only increase our people's determination to escalate the confrontation and resistance [against Israel]."
Iran's effort to copy the Gaza Strip's model of "resistance" against Israel to the West Bank coincides with increased talk about the need for a "two-state solution" and recognition of a Palestinian state by Canada, the UK, Australia, France and other countries. These countries have decided that the West Bank should be part of the proposed Palestinian state, meanwhile totally ignoring Iran's ongoing efforts to transform the Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps there into another base for jihad to kill Jews and destroy Israel.
Those Western countries, in addition, have chosen to ignore that the PA is unwilling to confront the terror groups in the West Bank. Under the current circumstances, it is obvious that the West Bank would be used as a launching pad to attack Israel, the same way the Gaza Strip was used on October 7, 2023.
The expansion of Iran's terror proxies in the West Bank is undoubtedly linked to the growing talk about the "two-state solution" and recognition of a Palestinian state. In the eyes of the Iranian regime, Hamas and PIJ, these moves could not have taken place were it not for the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Last month, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Qatar's Al-Jazeera television network:
"Why are the countries recognizing a Palestinian state today? Before October 7, did any country dare recognize a Palestinian state? The fruits of October 7 are what caused the entire world to open its eyes to the Palestinian issue – and they are moving toward it with force."
Western countries that have chosen unilaterally to recognize a Palestinian state have in fact emboldened the Iranian regime and its Palestinian jihadist proxies.
The leaders of Iran, Hamas and PIJ view Western leaders such as France's Emmanuel Macron, the UK's Keir Starmer, and Australia's Anthony Albanese as "useful idiots" in their jihad to eradicate Israel.
Even if the war in the Gaza Strip ends, Qatar (here, here and here), Iran (here, here and here), Hamas and PIJ will never give up the fight to destroy Israel and replace it with a radical Islamist state. The attempt to transform the West Bank into a second base for jihad highlights that ending the war in the Gaza Strip will not end the dream of wiping Israel off the map.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
