The attacks – one vehicle-ramming near the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement south of Hebron (Al-Khalil), the other a stabbing at the illegal Atiret outpost north of Ramallah – were carried out by teenagers. Their youth alone has sent alarm through the Israeli security establishment.
A female soldier was wounded in the overnight ramming at Yehuda junction. Hours later, two paratroopers were stabbed in Atiret. Both Palestinian attackers – 17-year-old Muhanad al-Zaghir and 18-year-old Muhammad Asmar – were shot dead by Israeli forces.
The Israeli army said the Hebron attacker was “neutralized” at dawn by the 202nd battalion. Palestinian medical sources confirmed al-Zaghir died of multiple gunshot wounds.
The surge in violence comes against a backdrop of near-daily Israeli raids that have intensified since mid-January, when a previous Gaza ceasefire allowed the regime to redirect its firepower toward the West Bank.
Last week alone, Israeli troops mounted a large-scale invasion of Tubas governorate in the north, part of what Palestinian analysts describe as a systematic campaign to crush resistance, expand illegal settlements and force demographic change.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded or detained in recent weeks; dozens of homes and olive groves have been razed. Settlers, shielded by soldiers, have torched farmland and assaulted villagers with near-total impunity.
Palestinian political analyst Khalil Kafakji warned that the West Bank has reached a breaking point.
“The ongoing Israeli aggressions on the West Bank, settler attacks, and daily arbitrary arrests of Palestinians reflect intense pressure on Palestinian society in the West Bank,” he said. “Warnings issued from within the occupation army itself indicate that Israelis themselves realize the West Bank has reached a point where containing it will be difficult.”
He added that any spark could ignite “a broader confrontation – direct clashes or a wider wave of armed resistance.”
Hamas leader Abdulrahman Shadeed framed the Israeli campaign as proof of panic.
“No matter how far the Zionists go in their oppression and crimes, they cannot impose their terms and demands on the Palestinian people,” he declared.
Resistance factions have issued similar statements, predicting that continued killings and land grabs will only accelerate the cycle of defiance.
Four scenarios now dominate strategic discussions:
- A full-blown security eruption, turning the West Bank into a multi-front battlefield of armed resistance.
- A third intifada combining street protests, general strikes and armed operations.
- The collapse of the Palestinian Authority, replaced by local commanders and grassroots networks that redefine the fight.
- A sweeping Israeli reoccupation – mass arrests, prolonged curfews and possible territorial fragmentation to break Palestinian contiguity.
For now, the occupied West Bank remains a cauldron of rage, its next chapter written in the blood of teenagers who refuse to live under permanent siege.