Israeli security forces seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, February 25, 2025. (photo credit: NASSER ISHTAYEH\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The West Bank and the Egyptian border have the potential to boil over if certain threats are not addressed – and the issues are different in each place.<\/p>\n
While Israel has been fighting in Gaza<\/a> for more than 23 months, other borders and areas have grown increasingly unstable and pose a threat. This is particularly true when it comes to the West Bank and Egyptian border.<\/p>\n Both areas have the potential to boil over if certain threats are not addressed. The issues are different in each place.<\/p>\n In the West Bank, the challenge is keeping a low level insurgency weakened. Israel has successfully checked the attempt by groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad to carve out a zone of control in the northern West Bank. This took several years to accomplish, from roughly 2021 to early 2025.<\/p>\n The attacks by groups in Jenin and Nablus and other places were fueled by illegal arms that have been flowing the West Bank. Large numbers of M-4 or M-16 type rifles as well as modern handguns have been moving into the hands of terrorist groups.<\/p>\n A new phenomenon in the West Bank is the attempt by terrorist groups to build small rockets<\/a>. This is a new problem and one that mirrors what happened in Gaza in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As such it is clear that the terrorists are seeking to innovate and change. In the early 2000s the main threat in the West Bank came from suicide bombers and some guns.<\/p>\n