Our Wednesday News Analysis | The War beyond Gaza: Israel’s Silent Shock Campaign in the West Bank

Israel launched a major operation in the occupied West Bank. (Photo: via PalPost)

In her book The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein defines “shock and awe” not merely as a military tactic, but as a political and economic strategy that exploits moments of collective trauma—whether caused by war, natural disaster, or economic collapse—to impose radical policies that would otherwise be resisted. According to Klein, societies in a state of shock are rendered disoriented and vulnerable, allowing those in power to push through sweeping transformations while opposition is fragmented or overwhelmed.

Though the policy is often discussed in the context of US foreign policy—from Iraq to Haiti—Israel has employed shock-and-awe tactics with greater frequency, consistency, and refinement. Unlike the US, which has applied the doctrine episodically across distant theaters, Israel has used it continuously against a captive population living under its direct military control.

Indeed, the Israeli version of shock and awe has long been a default policy for suppressing Palestinians. It has been applied across decades in the occupied Palestinian territory and extended to neighboring Arab countries whenever it suited Israeli strategic objectives.

In Lebanon, this approach became known as the Dahiya Doctrine, named after the Dahiya neighborhood in Beirut that was systematically destroyed by Israel during its 2006 war on Lebanon. The doctrine advocates the use of disproportionate force against civilian areas, the deliberate targeting of infrastructure, and the transformation of entire neighborhoods into rubble in order to deter resistance through collective punishment.

Gaza has been the epicenter of Israel’s application of this tactic. In the years preceding the genocide, Israeli officials increasingly framed their assaults on Gaza as limited, “managed” wars designed to periodically weaken Palestinian resistance...

Read more: The War beyond Gaza: Israel’s Silent Shock Campaign in the West Bank

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PALESTINIAN BUS DRIVERS ARE ON THE FRONT LINES OF ISRAELI RACIAL VIOLENCE

Source: +972 Magazine
https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-bus-drivers-israel-attacks-jerusalem/?utm_source=972+Magazine+Newsletter&utm_campaign=30ac7c0a9b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_9_12_2022_11_20_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1fe821d25-30ac7c0a9b-318843333

By Charlotte Ritz-Jack
Published January 15, 2026

From Jerusalem to Haifa, bus drivers and ticket inspectors are facing an unprecedented surge in attacks — be it from ultra-Orthodox youth or soccer hooligans — forcing many to choose between livelihood and safety.

Security and rescue forces are seen at the scene where an ultra-Orthodox teenager was killed and three others were wounded after being hit by a bus during a mass demonstration against the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews to the Israeli army, Jerusalem, January 6, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

During a mass demonstration by Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community against conscription to the Israeli military last week, Palestinian bus driver Fakhri Khatib, driving Egged bus 64, found himself surrounded by a mob of young protesters banging on the side of the bus. He called the police for help, but none arrived.

In a bid to escape the mob, he first reversed the bus several meters. But the protesters followed, and soon managed to prise open the door. As they forced their way inside, they kicked, spat at, and threatened Khatib, leading him to fear for his life. At this point he accelerated forward, unaware that 14-year old Yosef Eisenthal was clinging to the underside of the front bumper. Eisenthal was killed as Khatib drove away, while three more teenagers were wounded.

Two other Palestinian bus drivers, neither of whom have spoken publicly, were attacked that night. One, driving Superbus line 516 through the neighborhood of Bayit VeGan, reported protesters throwing objects at his bus before boarding and then beating him so severely that he required medical evacuation. The second, driving line 77 close to where Eisenthal was killed, reported teenagers discharging a fire extinguisher directly at him, almost suffocating him.

Khatib, a resident of East Jerusalem, was released from house arrest this week but faces charges of negligent homicide (ultra-Orthodox members of Knesset unsuccessfully campaigned for an aggravated murder charge). “If Khatib had known that someone was clinging to the bus, he would not have driven another meter,” his lawyer told Haaretz.

The case has thrust renewed attention onto a phenomenon that bus drivers and labor unions have been grappling with for years. In 2014, a year punctuated by a devastating Israeli military assault on Gaza, one in every three Jerusalem bus drivers quit their jobs amid escalating violence that peaked when driver Yousef Hassan Al-Ramouni was found hanged in his bus (Israeli officials ruled his death a suicide, but many drivers believed Al-Ramouni had been murdered).

In 2017, there were 18 reported cases of assaults against bus drivers across Israel and the West Bank — roughly one to two per month. Violent incidents further spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic as those who refused to wear masks retaliated against bus drivers, while a group of ultra-Orthodox men torched a bus and beat a driver in protest of the government-enforced lockdown.

But according to Koach LaOvdim (“Power to the Workers”), a trade union that has represented bus drivers since 2015 and now organizes roughly one-third of drivers nationwide, violence has surged to unprecedented levels over the past two years in a climate shaped by the aftermath of October 7 and Israel’s genocide in Gaza...

Read more: Palestinian bus drivers are on the front lines of Israeli racial violence

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'THIS IS ANOTHER NAKBA': HOW OVER 100 WEST BANK PALESTINIANS HAD TO LEAVE THEIR HOMES IN JUST ONE DAY

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/west-bank/2026-01-13/ty-article-magazine/.premium/how-over-100-palestinians-had-to-leave-their-west-bank-homes-in-just-one-day/0000019b-b601-d728-a7ff-f7c9de850000

By Matan Golan
Published January 13, 2026

Villagers dismantle houses and sell flocks under constant harassment, while volunteers stage 'protective shifts' to keep settlers' sheep away. 'Men in peak fitness need 60-year-old activists or 20-year-old children to protect them,' says observer Amir Pansky, calling it the most revolting ethnic cleansing possible.'

A resident of Ras Ein al-Auja with his belongings, on Sunday. Credit: Itai Ron

The sounds of metal welding in Ras Ein al-Auja continued all night long. More and more families began packing their possessionsin preparation for leaving their homes, under the worsening harassment they have undergone from the nearby settler outposts.

On Saturday afternoon, Yousef sold his flock of sheep. His neighbors dismantled the pen, while others dismantled the house. At the same time, left-wing activists were called there to provide the residents with some protection while they completed their departure.

One of the men burst into tears next to the truck loaded with his home's contents. "This is another Nakba," said his neighbor, Husseini. "Everyone is leaving for a different area. Some to Auja, some to Jericho, Taybeh or the southern part of Mount Hebron. We've lived here for 40 years, after we were forced to leave Masafer Yatta in 1967, but wherever we go they will follow us – they told us that, the settlers."

The family's flock of sheep was loaded onto a double-deck truck – the ewes below, the lambs above. "We would take the sheep far away to the mountains," Husseini said, pointing west. Since the outbreak of the war, settlers have prevented them from going out to pasture, forcing them to buy fodder for the sheep with their own money. Apart from fearing their neighbors living in the nearby outpost, Ras Ein al-Auja residents say they cannot continue living like this financially. "We have no future," said one local.

The settlers who passed by his house last week, Husseini says, shouted at him, "We've beaten you." He says that the villagers knew that the departure was coming. "It's the same group of settlers; they work according to a plan. The government is with them, as well as the army and the police. Each time they focus on a different community, force it to leave, and then take over the land it was sitting on," he added. "In the end, it doesn't matter, media or international pressure – they succeed. After cutting us off and preventing us from making a living, there is no choice left. Is this the democracy they're so proud of?"...

Read more: 'This Is Another Nakba': How Over 100 West Bank Palestinians Had to Leave Their Homes In Just One Day'