Palestinians and Israelis are preparing for a decisive and tense month at the beginning of July, when Tel Aviv is expected to announce the annexation of parts of the West Bank.
While Palestinians are seeking to implement more decisions to cancel agreements with Israel until that time, the Israeli army prepares for a possible major escalation that could turn into a new Intifada.
In remarks on Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said his government was working on a plan to suspend all agreements with Israel, in response to the annexation of lands.
The Authority has stopped security coordination with Israel, but has yet to take action over decisions such as withdrawing recognition of Israel, converting the authority into a state, stopping civil coordination and dealing with economic and other legal issues.
The PA is also seeking to mobilize an international position that could prevent Israel from implementing a plan to annex parts of the West Bank, which threatens the future of the Authority and the entire political process.
In the same context, PAPresident Mahmoud Abbas is chairing, this Tuesday, a meeting of the crisis cell to follow up on the Israeli annexation steps and the adequate response mechanisms.
In the Jordan Valley, occupation forces have already removed signs that were intended for Israelis to warn them that they were approaching Palestinian-controlled areas. They have also launched a military campaign on Monday, damaging water networks, confiscating equipment, and conducting field investigations, in addition to destroying vegetable stands for Palestinian farmers.
Faced with a possible Palestinian escalation, the Israeli army is preparing for a scenario of significant security deterioration, during which a third Intifada could erupt.
Israeli army officers gave a detailed description of the security scenarios, expecting that the deterioration in its first stage would start with incidents of stone-throwing to be followed by “stabbing operations”, and “unorganized individual attacks in the third stage”.
In the fourth stage, the officers expected shootings and the use of explosives, including carrying out explosive operations.
