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00:00Well, for some analysis, Douglas Herbert is with me now.
00:03And Douglas, look, this is a major Israeli operation
00:07in the West Bank.
00:08Some say it's the largest in years there.
00:11Are we seeing, do you think, a new front opening in the war,
00:14while, of course, we have the ongoing massive conflict
00:17in Gaza and the almost daily exchange of fire
00:20along the Lebanese border?
00:21For a number of reasons, I don't think
00:22you're going out on a limb by suggesting we're essentially
00:25seeing the opening of a third front.
00:27Look, the West Bank, the occupied West Bank,
00:30has been on low simmer in terms of violence,
00:34at least relative to the all-out war
00:37that we've seen in Gaza, Israel-Hamas war in Gaza,
00:40and also the increasingly violent confrontations
00:44and volleys of back and forth artillery fire
00:47on the border with Lebanon, northern Israel, southern
00:50Lebanon, with Hezbollah.
00:51So if you're going to add this third front now,
00:53what we have been seeing, Nadia, since the beginning of the war,
00:56has been a constant of this conflict
00:59are these raids, near daily, if not daily,
01:01raids by IDF, Israeli Defense Forces,
01:05on often densely populated areas,
01:07refugee camps in these areas, in the name of,
01:12as Israeli Defense Forces put it,
01:14rooting out militants, targeting militants.
01:17They would see these as pinpoint operations
01:19where they have precise targets, and they
01:21are doing all they can to limit civilian harm.
01:23The Palestinians clearly have a very different take on this.
01:27They see a triumvirate of things colluding against them
01:32right now.
01:32They see both these raids stepping up in intensity.
01:35We've seen now airstrikes.
01:37These types of airstrikes that we've really
01:39seen in the past several days have been extremely
01:42rare in the West Bank.
01:44So in addition to just military on-the-ground raids,
01:47you have the airstrikes.
01:48But alongside that, and this is coupling those tensions
01:52and adding to this overall sense of almost overbearing
01:55violence or incipient violence in the daily lives
01:58of Palestinians, are these emboldened Palestinian
02:01settlers.
02:02Emboldened, I think, is a fair word to use.
02:04Israeli settlers.
02:05Israeli settlers who have been more and more attacking
02:10Palestinian communities, Palestinian farmers
02:14taking over their land, chasing them from their land,
02:17often with impunity.
02:18And when I say with impunity, what I mean by that
02:20is often with Israeli security forces seeing it happen,
02:25but standing by and doing little or nothing to intervene
02:28to try to stop it.
02:29So you have that sense alongside these raids
02:32by official military forces, these packs of Israeli
02:37settlers attacking Palestinian communities,
02:40more and more of these types of attacks.
02:42Plus alongside this, I said there's a third element,
02:45is what seems to be a stepped up seizure of a settlement
02:49building, that is seizure of Palestinian lands
02:52in the name of settlement building.
02:53We recently saw announcements of more settlements
02:56around a UNESCO site, a World Heritage site in Bethlehem area.
03:01And this sense of increasing Israeli encroachment
03:05on Palestinian land.
03:06I say a sense, because this is how the Palestinians see it,
03:08that their land is being taken over,
03:10flouting the will of the international community, which
03:12says these settlements are illegal.
03:14All of this is adding to a sense that the West Bank is not
03:16something that's just happening this week
03:18and becoming a new front.
03:19It has been a new front.
03:21We're just seeing the reality of it now in much heavier attacks,
03:24assaults, and explosions.
03:26Right, you mentioned the international community.
03:28What kind of reaction has there been
03:29to this Israeli incursion in the last few days?
03:31Yeah, well, the international community, let's boil it down,
03:34the United Nations, and specifically the United Nations
03:37Human Rights Office, has expressed
03:40concern and growing alarm at what
03:42it sees as a flagrant violation of international laws
03:45and norms in what they see as overly aggressive Israeli
03:49military tactics in these areas.
03:52Now, like I said, Israel has time and again
03:54pushed back against these allegations
03:57from human rights groups, from the UN itself,
04:00saying we, more than any other army in the world,
04:03we take absolutely every precaution,
04:06more than any professional army you can find,
04:08to ensure that civilians are protected,
04:10that civilians are not harmed.
04:12But the reality is, from witnesses on the ground,
04:14from human rights groups, they say that is simply not true.
04:17They say that the evidence of what they have witnessed
04:19flies in the face of those Israeli assertions
04:22that they are taking all precautions
04:24to ensure civilian safety.
04:26They say that this is an increasingly explosive situation
04:30and one which risks, in the view of many on the ground,
04:33of, yes, further heightening this conflict.
04:36I mentioned the initial two fronts.
04:37We've been talking about it, right?
04:39Gaza, Hezbollah, southern Lebanon,
04:41with Iran as their overseers.
04:44Right now, the West Bank is becoming very much
04:47an operational, active new front in this war,
04:50whether it is officially recognised as such.
04:53And just finally, Doug, let's talk briefly
04:56about what's happening in Gaza,
04:58because there has been some kind of agreement
05:00between the World Health Organisation and Israel
05:03to pause fighting in a number of areas for three days
05:06and that to allow a polio vaccination campaign
05:09of children to get underway.
05:12There are, though, some concerns about it.
05:13Will it work, right?
05:15The fears for, yes, there has been an agreement reached
05:18between the humanitarian officials and Israel.
05:22There will be, according to the agreement,
05:24three phases of which the first will be
05:27in the central Gaza Strip area,
05:28will be a three-day vaccination campaign
05:30running from six in the morning to three in the afternoon.
05:33Ultimately, about 640,000, 650,000 Palestinian children
05:38will be on the receiving end of these vaccinations.
05:41The terms of the deal also call for further phases,
05:44unspecified dates and logistics yet,
05:47but in the northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip.
05:49The question is, one, it doesn't apply
05:51to all of the Gaza Strip,
05:52just these designated areas for the vaccination campaign,
05:55something Hamas says is not enough.
05:57But also the question is, in the past,
05:59humanitarian groups have seen their vehicles fired on
06:03by Israeli security forces,
06:05Israeli security forces saying
06:06they were targeting militants, which is the familiar line,
06:09but they have fears that it will not, perhaps,
06:11run according to plan,
06:12and they want to ensure that those delivering these vaccines
06:16and delivering these vaccinations
06:17will be able to operate safely
06:18in these designated so-called humanitarian pause zones.