Fighting between Israel and Hamas could spread to the West Bank as at least 11 die after protests against Israeli army

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The young man, his head completely covered, except for his eyes, by a black-and-white checkered keffiyeh, crept forward, slingshot in hand. He fired a stone in the direction of the Israeli troops, then ducked back behind a barricade of burning tires.

Soon afterward, there was the crack of gunfire, followed by the hiss of tear-gas canisters.

The scene at the al-Bireh checkpoint, on the outskirts of the Palestinian capital of Ramallah, could have been from another Friday protest, in another time during Israel’s decades-long military occupation of the West Bank. But such incidents have taken on new danger as Israel prepares to invade the Gaza Strip in the wake of last Saturday’s bloody rampage through southern Israel by Hamas militants.

The all-out war consuming Israel and Gaza could consume the West Bank in chaos as well, a senior Palestinian official told The Globe and Mail amid Friday’s clashes in Ramallah and other West Bank cities.

Shadow wars in the Middle East

SYRIA

Tehran

Natanz

IRAQ

10

IRAN

ISRAEL

SAUDI

ARABIA

UAE

OMAN

Flashpoints

between Israel

and Iran

500km

YEMEN

6. 2014: Fifty-day conflict in Gaza –

sparked by kidnapping of three

Israelis – ends with deaths of 73

Israelis and more than 2,250

Palestinians

1. 1950s: Israel and Iran are allies

during the reign of Iran’s last mon-

arch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

1979: The friendship abruptly ends

with Islamic revolution and rise of

Ayatollah Khomeini

2017: Hamas agrees to Fatah’s

goal of establishing Palestinian state

in West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli PM

Benjamin Netanyahu dismisses

Hamas deal as meaningless

2. 1982: Israel invades Lebanon to

expel the Palestine Liberation

Organization. Israeli-backed militias

massacre thousands of civilians in

Sabra and Shatila refugee camps

7. 2018: Iranian-backed forces attack

Israeli positions on Golan Heights near

disputed Syrian-Israeli border

1985: Hezbollah (“Party of God”) –

proxy for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

Corps – founded, calls for

destruction of Israel

8. 2019-21: Tit-for-tat attacks on

shipping – Israel targets some 20

ships carrying Iranian oil or weapons

1987: First Palestinian intifada,

against Israeli occupation of West

Bank and Gaza, sees rise of Hamas,

and later Palestine Islamic Jihad

9. April 2021: Iran blames Israel for

explosion at its largest uranium

enrichment facility, in Natanz

3. 2006: Israel invades Lebanon

to suppress Hezbollah attacks

Oct: Israel likely behind cyberattack

that paralyzes payments at more than

4,300 Iranian fuel stations

4. 2007: Hamas seizes control of the

Gaza Strip from Fatah, a Palestinian

political party

10. Jan. 2023: Israel accused of drone

strike against Iranian weapons factory

in city of Isfahan

10

5. 2011: Civil war erupts in Syria.

Israel carries out hundreds of strikes

inside Syria against Iranian arms

shipments to Lebanon

Oct. 7: Hamas launches surprise

assault on Israel

Sources: graphic news; Bloomberg; Financial Times

Shadow wars in the Middle East

SYRIA

Tehran

Natanz

IRAQ

10

IRAN

ISRAEL

SAUDI

ARABIA

UAE

OMAN

Flashpoints

between Israel

and Iran

500km

YEMEN

6. 2014: Fifty-day conflict in Gaza –

sparked by kidnapping of three

Israelis – ends with deaths of 73

Israelis and more than 2,250

Palestinians

1. 1950s: Israel and Iran are allies

during the reign of Iran’s last mon-

arch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

1979: The friendship abruptly ends

with Islamic revolution and rise of

Ayatollah Khomeini

2017: Hamas agrees to Fatah’s

goal of establishing Palestinian state

in West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli PM

Benjamin Netanyahu dismisses

Hamas deal as meaningless

2. 1982: Israel invades Lebanon to

expel the Palestine Liberation

Organization. Israeli-backed militias

massacre thousands of civilians in

Sabra and Shatila refugee camps

7. 2018: Iranian-backed forces attack

Israeli positions on Golan Heights near

disputed Syrian-Israeli border

1985: Hezbollah (“Party of God”) –

proxy for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

Corps – founded, calls for

destruction of Israel

8. 2019-21: Tit-for-tat attacks on

shipping – Israel targets some 20

ships carrying Iranian oil or weapons

1987: First Palestinian intifada,

against Israeli occupation of West

Bank and Gaza, sees rise of Hamas,

and later Palestine Islamic Jihad

9. April 2021: Iran blames Israel for

explosion at its largest uranium

enrichment facility, in Natanz

3. 2006: Israel invades Lebanon

to suppress Hezbollah attacks

Oct: Israel likely behind cyberattack

that paralyzes payments at more than

4,300 Iranian fuel stations

4. 2007: Hamas seizes control of

the Gaza Strip from Fatah – a

Palestinian political party

10. Jan. 2023: Israel accused of drone

strike against Iranian weapons factory

in city of Isfahan

10

5. 2011: Civil war erupts in Syria.

Israel carries out hundreds of strikes

inside Syria against Iranian arms

shipments to Lebanon

Oct. 7: Hamas launches surprise

assault on Israel

Sources: graphic news; Bloomberg; Financial Times

Shadow wars in the Middle East

SYRIA

Tehran

Natanz

IRAQ

10

IRAN

ISRAEL

SAUDI

ARABIA

UAE

OMAN

Flashpoints

between Israel

and Iran

500km

YEMEN

6. 2014: Fifty-day conflict in Gaza –

sparked by kidnapping of three

Israelis – ends with deaths of 73

Israelis and more than 2,250

Palestinians

1. 1950s: Israel and Iran are allies

during the reign of Iran’s last monarch,

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

1979: The friendship abruptly ends

with Islamic revolution and rise of

Ayatollah Khomeini

2017: Hamas agrees to Fatah’s

goal of establishing Palestinian state

in West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli PM

Benjamin Netanyahu dismisses

Hamas deal as meaningless

2. 1982: Israel invades Lebanon to

expel the Palestine Liberation

Organization. Israeli-backed militias

massacre thousands of civilians in

Sabra and Shatila refugee camps

7. 2018: Iranian-backed forces attack

Israeli positions on Golan Heights near

disputed Syrian-Israeli border

1985: Hezbollah (“Party of God”) –

proxy for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

Corps – founded, calls for

destruction of Israel

8. 2019-21: Tit-for-tat attacks on

shipping – Israel targets some 20

ships carrying Iranian oil or weapons

1987: First Palestinian intifada,

against Israeli occupation of West

Bank and Gaza, sees rise of Hamas,

and later Palestine Islamic Jihad

9. April 2021: Iran blames Israel for

explosion at its largest uranium

enrichment facility, in Natanz

3. 2006: Israel invades Lebanon

to suppress Hezbollah attacks

Oct: Israel likely behind cyberattack

that paralyzes payments at more than

4,300 Iranian fuel stations

4. 2007: Hamas seizes control of

the Gaza Strip from Fatah – a Palestinian

political party

10. Jan. 2023: Israel accused of drone

strike against Iranian weapons factory

in city of Isfahan

5. 2011: Civil war erupts in Syria.

Israel carries out hundreds of strikes

inside Syria against Iranian arms

shipments to Lebanon

Oct. 7: Hamas launches surprise

assault on Israel

Sources: graphic news; Bloomberg; Financial Times

At least 11 people were killed and dozens injured as largely peaceful protests after Friday prayers were followed by violent demonstrations targeting the occupying Israeli army. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said many of the injured had been struck by live ammunition or shrapnel from bullets.

Meanwhile, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with air strikes and artillery fire for a seventh consecutive day, and maintained a siege of its 2.3 million Palestinian residents that has seen water, food and electricity supplies cut off. On Friday, Israel called for residents of the northern half of the strip – some 1.1 million people – to evacuate their homes and move to southern Gaza “for their own safety and protection.”

Gaza, which Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers from in 2005, is governed by the Islamic militant movement Hamas, while the Palestinian Authority of president Mahmoud Abbas has limited powers in the West Bank, which has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. The PA envisions both the West Bank and Gaza, as well as East Jerusalem, as part of a future Palestinian state.

The latest round of violence began last Saturday when Hamas militants staged a surprise crossborder invasion, killing some 1,300 people as they rampaged through the cities and kibbutzim of southern Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country has been at war since that moment.

About 1,800 Gazans have been killed by retributory Israeli attacks over the past week. At least 43 people have died in the West Bank during that period in skirmishes with Israeli troops.

“Sadly, when war breaks, things can spin out of control in every direction,” said Sabri Saidam, a member of the central committee of Mr. Abbas’s secular Fatah party. Speaking at his office in Ramallah, he said Friday’s demonstrations in the West Bank “reflect the mood of the people,” many of whom – including Mr. Saidam – have relatives in Gaza.

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There were also large protests on Friday in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon – as well as some Western capitals – after Hamas called for anti-Israel protests across the Arab world.

The Fatah movement, co-founded in 1957 by Yasser Arafat to fight for Palestinian independence, is in a delicate position ahead of an expected Israeli invasion of Gaza. Fatah is a rival of Hamas and doesn’t want to see the chaos that Hamas launched spread to the West Bank, where the Islamists have many followers.

But Fatah also cannot risk directly criticizing a movement that many Palestinians see as fighting for their rights while Fatah officials co-operate on security matters with Israel.

Mr. Saidam repeated Mr. Abbas’s condemnation of the targeting of civilians by both Israel and Hamas, and called for the siege of Gaza to be lifted.

“Our biggest pressing point is to end the current attack on Gaza and to allow people safe havens in terms of providing them necessary shelter and food and support,” he said. “I don’t know how this is going to bring security to Israel,” he said.

Mr. Saidam lashed out at Israel’s call for civilians to leave northern Gaza, calling it “forced displacement” and “another Nakba” – the term Palestinians use to describe their ancestors being driven from their homes by the 1948 war that led to the creation of the modern state of Israel.

He spoke shortly after thousands of Hamas supporters – and a smaller number of Fatah members – marched through Ramallah in one of the largest demonstrations the Palestinian capital has seen in decades. PA police stood aside and watched as the crowd chanted anti-Israel and pro-Hamas slogans.

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“Our people in Gaza, they are helpless, they cannot defend themselves, and nobody is standing with them. The world must see,” said Shireen Taleed, a 34-year-old bank employee and mother of two who joined the march.

She would not say whether she supported last Saturday’s attacks by Hamas, but said the context – the fact that Israel has maintained a near-complete blockade of the strip since Hamas took it over in 2007 – was important to understand. “What happened, happened because our people in Gaza have been suffering for years. They are in a prison.”

Later, smaller groups broke away from the main march in Ramallah and began hurling rocks and other projectiles at the al-Bireh checkpoint – which defends the road to the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit El and its 5,600 Jewish residents – and the other gates in the concrete barrier that cuts the West Bank off from East Jerusalem and Israel.

Several gunshots were heard during the hours-long demonstration at al-Bireh as Israeli troops used tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds to drive back the crowd. Several wounded protesters were taken away from the scene in ambulances.

As the street battles unfolded nearby, 200 Gazans – who had been in Israel on work permits before the Hamas attacks – spent a fourth day and night at a recreational centre in Ramallah, watching their phones anxiously for news of their families in the much hotter war zone.

“They are scared, they are desperate, they only have three hours of electricity out of 30, and water is very scarce. They don’t know what will happen next,” Salim Umran said of his wife and five children in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Mr. Umran, a 53-year-old construction worker who passed Israeli security checks to work, and receives a salary more than seven times what he could expect in Gaza, saw that come to an end when all Israeli work permits for Gazans were cancelled after the Hamas assault.

He said he’s only worried now about getting home to his family. “Only God knows if I will see my children again.”