BIsraeli forces swept into four towns around Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank this morning. Stun grenades in Attil, no reported injuries, no arrests.
BFour towns at once. That’s not a routine patrol.
BAl Jazeera English posted the Wafa report on X. Wafa is the Palestinian Authority news agency, and the core claim is direct: "Israeli forces have raided four towns surrounding the city of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank."
BThe basic outline isn’t being disputed: soldiers went in, fired stun grenades, and pulled back.
BAttil and Deir al-Ghusun to the north. Bal’a and Anabta to the east. I’ve watched Tulkarem become a real flashpoint.
BMy first thought is this is a security sweep. Israel’s been hunting armed cells in the northern West Bank for months.
BThen why no arrests? You hit four towns and find nobody?
BSometimes the point is disruption—make the network move, expose itself. No one getting hurt is actually a sign of restraint.
BRestraint? Stun grenades are loud, they cause panic. That lands on every family in Attil, not just the militants.
BThat’s how you clear streets without shooting anybody. It is the less deadly option.
BI’m not saying they should roll through with tanks. I’m saying if you’re doing four towns and arresting no one, the security argument is thin.
BYou don’t know what you’ll find until you go in. And the absence of arrests doesn’t mean there was no threat.
BNo, no—absence of arrests means you didn’t find the people you said you were looking for. So what did the operation accomplish?
BIt showed armed groups they can’t use those towns as safe houses. That matters.
BIt also shows ordinary Palestinians that soldiers can enter their neighborhoods any time. That’s not nothing.
BI’ll give you that. The fear is real. But when armed groups are said to fire from these towns, Israel has two choices: go in or do nothing.
BThat’s a false choice. They could work with the Palestinian Authority, target specific people, use intelligence.
BThey try. By Israel’s account, the Palestinian Authority doesn’t control these areas. That’s why the raids happen.
BBecause the raids weaken the authority further. It’s a loop.
BSo your answer is to let it fester? That’s how you get a major attack out of Tulkarem.
BMy answer is proportionality. Four towns, no arrests, stun grenades in civilian areas is collective pressure, not a surgical operation.
BAnd if Israel did nothing and there was an attack next week, you’d be first to ask why they didn’t act.
BI’m not saying do nothing—I’m saying this exact approach has been going on for years and hasn’t ended anything.
BIt also hasn’t let the northern West Bank turn into Gaza. That’s the other side of the ledger.
BThat’s true, but the cost is measured in young men with no hope. And those men become the next fight.
BYou sound like you’re about to say occupation is the root cause.
BI’ll say it: you can’t separate these raids from the occupation. That’s the context.
BFair enough on context. But you also can’t ignore that armed groups use civilians as cover. Both things are true.
BBoth true. And a four-town sweep with zero arrests is more about sending a message than stopping an attack.
BZero arrests does raise questions. But zero casualties matters too. It tells me they weren’t trying to escalate.
BUnless the escalation is the point. In the West Bank, the message is the operation.
BAnd the message is also to groups in Jenin and Nablus: we can reach you too.
BJenin got that message too. It didn’t stop the next raid.
BThat’s because this is a long fight. You don’t measure success by one morning.
BThen how do you measure it? More raids? Fewer attacks? What number says it’s working?
BAttacks stopped before they start. That’s the number you never see.
BWhich is convenient, because you can claim success without evidence.
BOh, come on. Intelligence services stop plots all the time. That’s not a fairy tale.
BThey do. But you still have to ask who absorbs the cost of every raid that doesn’t find a target.
BThe civilians. I said the fear is real. But the alternative is worse.
BMaybe. But that’s exactly where Palestinians and Israelis will never agree.
BBecause they’re living two different wars. One sees a raid, the other sees a threat.
BAnd both can be true at once. That’s what makes it so hard to cover.
BWhich is why I keep pushing on the details. Four towns, stun grenades, no one hurt.
BAnd no arrests. That’s the detail that bothers me.
BNot enough to convince me it was wrong. But I won’t call it a clean operation.
BThat’s about as much common ground as we’ll get.
BDon’t get soft on me. I still think Israel had every right to go in.
BAnd I still think this was more message than mission. Let’s see if anything comes out of Tulkarem in the next day.
BThat’s the real test. If we’re back here Monday with a bigger incident, we’ll know the answer.