Terror Organizations Consolidating Their Control Over Tulkarm, Tubas In Northern West Bank, Undermining Control Of Palestinian Authority
The Tulkarm and Tubas governorates in the northern West Bank have lately become hotspots of terrorist activity against Israel, a situation that undermines the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in those areas, as has already happened in the governorates of Jenin and Nablus. This process – in which militias comprising fighters from multiple Palestinian organizations, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, gain strength and engage in escalating terror against Israel while undermining the security control of the PA on the ground – began before the outbreak of the Gaza war. But since then it has steadily increased, and in the recent months Hamas and other organizations have even been threatening to carry out attacks in the West Bank similar to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel.[1]