Palestinian experts believe that the recent Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip may increase the tension in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian experts said that Israel may go to launch a campaign of arrests and assassinations against the leaders of the Islamic Jihad movement in the West Bank, in the wake of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
However, they made it clear in separate conversations with Anatolia that the West Bank was and will continue to be a "persistent source of concern" for Israel, as it views it as an "internal affair and part of its territory in light of the rise of Israeli right-wing extremism."
Over the course of three days, a military confrontation erupted between the Israeli army and the Islamic Jihad movement in the Gaza Strip, which ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on Sunday evening, killing 44 Palestinians and wounding 360 others.
Another expected encounter
Ayman Youssef, a professor of political science at the Arab American University in Jenin (privately), said that another wave of confrontation between Israel and the Islamic Jihad movement may erupt, especially in the West Bank.
Youssef attributed this to the fact that the ceasefire agreement signed between the two parties is "fragile and unclear."
The Palestinian expert expected that Israel would carry out a series of operations targeting Islamic Jihad activists in the West Bank, through a campaign of arrests and assassinations.
The West Bank is a constant worry.
In turn, Imad Awwad, director of the Jerusalem Center for Studies on Israeli Affairs (Private), considered that "the West Bank is a source of constant concern for Israel, and everything that happens in the Gaza Strip is affected by and affects the West Bank."
He told Anadolu Agency, "It is expected that we will witness in the West Bank a state of resurgence in light of Israel's continued implementation of a series of continuous operations, and in light of the worst political, social and economic conditions in the West Bank."
He added that "the new generation has an orientation that believes in resistance and adopts it as a strategic choice, and this means that the element of tension is available and that confrontation may erupt at any time."
Awwad ruled out that the latest round of escalation in Gaza would have any effect on the Israeli elections.
The growing popularity of jihad
For his part, Ahmed Rafiq Awad, director of the Al-Quds Center for Studies at Al-Quds University, believes that the popularity of the Islamic Jihad movement "grew" after the recent war, especially in the West Bank.
He added to Anadolu Agency: "Apart from profit and loss calculations, the Jihad movement has been able to prove its ability to confront Israel, even if it is alone."
He pointed out that this tour raised the movement's balance among the Palestinian public, especially in the West Bank.
Awad expected that the movement would carry out "a series of operations in the West Bank and inside (Israel), where the feeling of anger among the movement's elements in the West Bank grew after the recent Israeli operation in Gaza."