British Broadcasting CorporationWhen a white van pulled up to the Palestinian Customs Police office in the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Tubas, Abdul Nasser Sarhan had no reason to be suspicious.
According to Abdul Nasser’s colleagues, the truck driver got out of the car and greeted him in Arabic.
It was early in the morning. The 24-year-old uniformed police officer had just arrived on duty.
CCTV footage showed him strolling past a sentry post, his rifle hanging casually at his side.
A few seconds later, a man wearing jeans and a dark T-shirt appeared from the direction of the white truck, followed by uniformed Israeli soldiers.
He raised his pistol and shot Abdul Nasser dead.
Soon the streets were filled with Israeli soldiers. They retrieved Abdel Nasser’s rifle and continued shooting as his colleagues tried to retrieve his body – all captured on CCTV.
When we visited Tubas the next morning, at the end of July, we discovered a makeshift monument of stones and withered flowers at the spot where Abdel Nasser had fallen.
The guard post and adjacent walls are riddled with bullet holes, each labeled with a yellow tag. The floor and doorway were stained with faded blood.
The Israeli military said in a statement issued on the day of the incident that the shooting occurred during an operation to detain two wanted criminals.
Colleagues of Abdel Nasser in Tubas said the arrests were made at a nearby house.
The military said soldiers “encountered armed terrorists” and “a Palestinian Authority customs official was killed in the crossfire.”
Judging from the evidence of the CCTV footage, this last statement is clearly false.
Two weeks later, an Israeli security official contacted by the BBC said the incident was “one of hundreds, if not thousands, of special activities that were planned and carried out with great precision”.
He said the issue was under review “because it did not go as planned”.
Clearly, this was a seriously wrong move.
There was no suggestion that Abdel Nasser or the customs office was a target of the operation.
It seems that the young guard unfortunately encountered an Israeli undercover operation and was shot during the operation.
ReutersBut for Abdel Nasser’s colleagues in the customs police unit, the tragic incident was part of a broader pattern of behavior that left the Palestinian Authority, which is theoretically responsible for areas not under direct Israeli military control, Safety Responsible) are finding it harder than ever to fulfill their responsibilities.
“This is a wake-up call, especially for our security services,” Palestinian Customs Police spokesman Lieutenant Ibrahim Ayash told CNN.
“How can we enforce law and order, serve the people and protect them when you hinder my work and kill my officers?”
He said customs officials were increasingly reluctant to stop suspicious vehicles for fear of encountering Israeli soldiers operating under cover.
“Now, as a customs officer, you need to decide whether to intercept the vehicle,” he said.
“If you stop it and it has special forces [inside]they might kill you.
Fans of the Israeli TV show “Fauda” know that covert operations were a regular feature of life in the West Bank long before the Gaza war broke out last October.
Recent evidence suggests an increase in the frequency of such operations, with multiple CCTV footage showing Israeli forces dressed as civilians and even medical personnel snatching wanted Palestinians from city streets and hospital beds.
But this covert operation is only part of a larger picture.
While all eyes are on Gaza, another war is raging in the West Bank, where the Israeli military is cracking down on armed groups it says are funded by Iran.
“The situation on the ground is very, very complicated,” an Israeli security official told me on condition of anonymity.
“You might say it’s on the verge of exploding.”
The emergence of a new generation of local armed groups, mainly in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, can be traced to around 2021, with the first groups appearing in Jenin.
But the war in Gaza has fanned the flames of rebellion in other cities, from Tulkarem to Qalqiliya and, most recently, Tubas.
An Israeli security crackdown, the actions of violent Jewish settler groups and the belief that the Palestinian Authority is unable to protect them have all contributed to the growing atmosphere of tension.
“They’re very frustrated with Israel, they’re very frustrated with the Palestinian Authority, and they’re looking for an outlet to vent that frustration,” the Israeli security official said.
The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry says more than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October. As many as 10,000 people have been arrested, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Association.
At least 18 Israelis were also killed in the West Bank, including 12 members of the security forces.
Palestinian gunmen opened fire near the Israeli settlement of Mehora on Saturday, killing one Israeli and wounding another.
Later in the day, Hamas said it carried out the attack in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed dozens of Palestinians who had taken refuge at a school in Gaza City.
Some senior observers fear the armed conflict could erupt into a full-scale insurrection or insurrection.
“If an intifada breaks out, it will be a very, very big problem,” General Israel Ziv, the former head of the IDF’s operations branch, told me.
“Military, the way we handle things is good and bad. But when it falls into an uprising, it’s a completely different story. That’s where it could go.
Gen. Ziv said the Israeli military is unwilling to acknowledge the dangers closer to home as it remains focused on the war in Gaza and its simmering conflict with Hezbollah on its northern border.
“This is a huge problem that can break out in the more sensitive areas of our faces, [close] To the population centers of Israel,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the Balata refugee camp on the edge of Nablus, Abdul Nasser’s family continues to grieve.
They watched CCTV footage of Tubas and drew their own conclusions about the Israeli army’s actions.
“He came to kill just to kill,” said Ismail Mohammed Sarhan, Abdel Nasser’s uncle.
Abdul Nasser’s father, Mohannad, could barely comprehend the loss of his son.
I asked him what kind of person he was.
“Ambitious, kind, always smiling,” he said, holding back tears.
