Even as the war in Gaza rages, tensions in the occupied West Bank continue to rise, and there is fresh evidence that Iran – a longstanding backer of armed Palestinian groups – has been flooding the territory with weapons over the past couple of years.
A New York Times investigation found that Tehran has been smuggling thousands of handguns and rifles into the West Bank. The weapons are routed either through the long, porous West Bank-Jordan border or via smuggling networks running through Lebanon and Israel itself. The Iranian commander assassinated last week by an Israeli airstrike in Damascus is thought to have been involved.
Since the Hamas rampage of Oct. 7, Israel has carried out fresh crackdowns on suspected militants in the West Bank, while the government has directly armed Israeli settlers who live in the territory illegally. Last year alone, more than 500 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli settlers or troops, the highest mark on record.
The Palestinian Authority, which recognizes Israel and exerts limited self-government over the West Bank, is weak and deeply unpopular, raising concerns that the situation there could explode into a full-on violent intifada again, quickly transforming the Gaza war into a wider, two-front affair.