In the video: the route of the attack on Dizingoff Street (Uri Sela)
Before a group of young Palestinians from the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp shot at a restaurant at Almog Junction in the Jordan Valley, they swore allegiance to Hamas.
This was a surprise for their families - and also for Hamas.
"They were not members of al-Qassem (the military wing of Hamas) until that moment," said Wal Awadet, the father of Ibrahim and Rafat, who were part of the same group.
"They had a normal life. It was something personal."
Their story illustrates the complex combination of spontaneous actions and organizations between the established factions and new groups that arose during the recent escalation in the territories, which raised fears of the outbreak of a third intifada.
A new generation of Palestinians, who despaired of the old leadership and grew up in the era of social networks, founded a series of new terrorist organizations - from the "Lions' Den" in Nablus to the Jenin Brigade.
These groups, which arose in the West Bank in the past year, usually have a small number of fighters and a loose connection to Hamas, Fatah or the Islamic Jihad.
Two Hamas officials, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity due to the fear of Israel, said that since the close monitoring of his activities in the West Bank does not allow him to operate freely there - the organization that controls Gaza relies more on flexible and informal networks to avoid detection.
Palestinian militants at a rally in Jenin, this month (Photo: Reuters)
A senior Hamas official in Jericho, usually a peaceful city and a popular weekend hangout, told Reuters that the organization was not aware of the cell that carried out the attack on the restaurant, but said: "Any organization would be happy to claim that they are members of it."
A few days after the attack, which failed due to an arms hold, the security forces eliminated the terrorists.
"All the signs indicate that the intifada is coming," said the same senior Hamas official in Jericho, near the Dead Sea.
"There is a new generation of people who believe that the only solution is an armed struggle," added the official, who refused to reveal his name in light of the fear of Israel.
Local branches of the major organizations, such as the Aqbat Jaber Battalion, which was founded by the brothers who carried out the attack on the restaurant and their friends, are multiplying.
"Today we have a new generation that is aware of the resistance, and it is a generation that knows the brutality of the occupation," said a young, masked armed man at a rally held in Jenin this month, with a ribbon in the colors of Hamas around his head. "He is not afraid of arrests, injuries or martyrdom. He is not afraid From nothing," he told Reuters.
In the absence of central leadership, those local organizations convey their messages through songs, Tiktok videos and posters of militants on the walls.
This is how they attract young people who are angry at the repeated feelings of humiliation they experience from soldiers and settlers.
"The number of fighters is increasing all the time and the enemy should know that the violence against our people and our camps increases their number, not decreases it," said a masked gunman from the Jenin Brigade.
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A Palestinian gunman shoots at the security forces in Jenin, last week (Photo: Reuters)
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A flood of weapons
During the past year, the security forces have been raiding various locations in the West Bank almost every day, as part of Operation "Breakwater" which began following a wave of terrorist attacks inside Israeli territory.
During this period, more than 200 Palestinians were killed, most of whom according to Israel were terrorist operatives, including 80 since the beginning of the year alone.
40 Israelis and foreign citizens have been murdered in attacks since the beginning of the current wave of terrorism.
Towards the month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover, the fear of further escalation is increasing.
Palestinian and Israeli officials said that there is a flood of arms smuggling from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and from within Israel itself.
"These are normal weapons, M16, Kalashnikov, pistols, ammunition, these are not weapons that are prepared at home, these are weapons that countries buy," said a senior IDF officer, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
In addition to this, the officer said that the new generation of terrorist operatives is effectively using social media to recruit fighters.
"It's about the deadliest weapon there is, that no one talks about, and that's the phone, so on social networks things go very easily right next to Tiktok, etc.," he said.
A car driven by three terrorists who were killed by the IDF in the Jenin area last week (Photo: Reuters)
While the lack of central leadership reduced the political focus of those new groups, IDF officials said that their flexible nature and the large number of individual attackers, with no known connection to major terrorist organizations, make it difficult to deal with them. An attack like the one that happened on February 26 in Hawara,
where The murder of two Israelis by a terrorist from Hamas, after which settlers rioted in a Palestinian town, was an example of the explosive nature of the situation. As the series of attacks and actions by Israel continues, the international community's calls for calm increase. However, it does not appear that the government, the most right-wing in the country's history, and the Palestinians are ready to back down "
Am I afraid?
No, I carry my weapon and stand against the army," said Ahmed Jonim, whose two brothers were killed in a raid in January, during a march held earlier this month in the refugee camp in Jenin in honor of the founder of the Jenin Brigade.
Four days after the military parade in Jenin, in which about 250 armed men from different factions participated, the security forces raided the camp and killed six terrorists, including the one who carried out the attack in Hawara.
Two days later, three terrorists from the Islamic Jihad were killed in a raid in the area and yesterday three militants from the Lions' Back were killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces.
"At some point everyone reacts"
Senior officials in Israel tend to blame the Palestinian Authority during periods of escalation, although its ability to operate in centers such as Jenin is quite limited.
And all the more so when it has been busy in recent months with the future replacement
of the 87-year-old chairman of the Authority, Abu Mazen, and with the possible succession battles that may break out upon his departure.
and without a future. This bitterness has recently begun to spread from the extreme fringes even to relatively affluent Palestinians, such as the brothers who carried out the attack on a restaurant in the Bekaa. None of them fit the classic profile of uneducated young people who choose terrorism.
The father of the Aqbat Jaber brothers said that his sons seemed happy.
Ibrahim, 27, operated a water tanker business in the camp, and like his brother, Rafat, 22, who was an electrician by trade, studied for two years at the university.
The father said that one of their friends in the local organization had a poultry business and he drove a modern BMW car.
"There is a good life here, it's like a family in the camp," he said.
"But every day something bad happens. At some point everyone reacts."
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