Netanyahu faces mounting security challenges as violence spirals in West Bank Premium

Israel saw armed battles between its forces and Palestinian militants, attacks on settlers by Palestinian gunmen and violence by radical settlers in Palestinian villages — all in one week

Benjamin Netanyahu and his loyalists released a brief cry of victory on June 22 morning as the judges at Jerusalem’s District Court told the prosecution that it “would be difficult” to prove allegations of bribery against the Prime Minister in one of the central cases currently deliberated, commonly known as Case 4000. This was seen by Mr. Netanyahu’s team as proof that charges were trumped up.

EDITORIAL | Spiralling violence: On the West Bank

But the next day, Israeli Attorney General and Chief Prosecutor, Gali Baharav-Myara, stated that prosecution will continue, nevertheless. Adv. Boaz Ben-Tzur, head of Mr. Netanyahu’s legal team, called the decision “haphazard and outrageous”.

But the legal challenges Mr. Netanyahu is dealing with have been dwarfed by the mounting security and political challenges his administration is facing. The incidents of the last week left behind a trail of attacks and armed clashed of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) with Palestinian gunmen, and later with radical settler groups, which included military escalation not witnessed since the second Intifada, 20 years ago.

The crisis broke out on early Monday morning (June 19), when IDF special forces entered Burkin and the Jenin Refugee Camp to arrest two affiliates of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), who had allegedly been involved in planning recent shooting attacks on Israelis. On their way out of the camp, Palestinians detonated an IED which incapacitated several of the armored personnel carriers, wounding seven soldiers. The IDF top brass views the incident as particularly worrisome, as it shows footprints of Iranian military training and tactics used by their proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

As the convoy called in for rescue, a fierce gunbattle developed, which raged on for 11 hours. The IDF scrambled two Apache attack helicopters to secure the evacuation, in what was the first time the Israeli Air Force fought in the territories since the second Intifada of 2000-2005.

At the end of the battle, over 30 Palestinians were wounded and seven dead, including a 15-year-old boy, Ahmed Sakr, and 15-year-old girl, Sedil Naghaghiya.