Al-Aqsa Storm a prelude to something bigger
By Mehdi Shakibaei
Middle East affairs expert
The breakout of the Palestinian “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” against Israeli targets has become the top story of credible news sources of the world, debunking Israel’s claim, or should I say, shattering Israel’s dream of being unshakable. This operation is unlike any other, whether it be in terms of how the Palestinian fighters infiltrated the Israeli settlements, or how much they damaged the regime.
To describe the operation, I would borrow the term that Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah used two years ago: “Fath al-Jalil.” The term literally translates into “the glorious victory,” but can also be translated into “conquering Al-Jalil,” as Al-Jalil is the name of a region in northern Palestine.
Reacting to the threats and claims made by Israelis at the time, he stressed that when Hezbollah would start the war with Israel, it would enter the occupied territories and conquer the Al-Jalil region. Many who had a certain impression of Israel’s intelligence system and military capabilities took Nasrallah’s statement as just an instance of psychological warfare against the Israelis and ruled out its possibility.
The operation that broke out in Palestine in the early hours of Saturday was the fulfillment of Nasrallah’s promise by Palestinian fighters in another area of the battlefield. In fact, it was established that the promise of the Palestinian resistance group to infiltrate the occupied territories was not an exercise in psychological warfare; it is rather very much a reality now.
I believe the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm was a prologue to something bigger. Henceforth, the history of clashes between Palestinians and Israelis will be divided into ‘before’ and ‘after’ Operation Al-Aqsa Storm. The intelligence bodies of a regime whose sphere of influence purportedly encompasses a large slice of the world — from Azerbaijan to Georgia to the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman to Europe — did not realize that Palestinian fighters have been planning such a massive operation for at least a week, thereby catching Israel by surprise.
The number of Israelis that were either killed or taken captive during the operation is significant. What is more, this show of strength by the Palestinian fighters who infiltrated deep into the occupied territories will also surely leave psychological marks on Israeli settlers who will see the claim of Israel’s security for what it is: empty. A few years ago, during the prisoner swap between the resistance groups and Israel, 500 Palestinians were exchanged to free a single Israeli captive. Now, it has been said that 36 ranked Israeli military officials have been taken captive, which is a great achievement for the resistance.
It is also worth asking whether the fighters who entered the occupied territories during the operation embarked from the Gaza Strip. It is highly probable that some of these fighters moved not from the Gaza Strip but from the 1948-occupied lands to clash with the Israeli forces. If it is proven correct, it would be a significant development to see the armed fight with Israelis no longer being limited to the residents of the Gaza Strip. It would be cause for serious alarm for the Israeli regime.