Millions of Israelis at risk due to Fatah’s military build-up in West Bank, new report warns

The Palestinian Authority's military build-up in the West Bank, allegedly in violation of the Oslo Accords, presents an unprecedented threat to millions of Israelis, according to a new report by Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch for the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. The report warns that the West Bank now hosts an armed force ten times larger than the number of terrorists who infiltrated Israel from Gaza on October 7, describing it as a force "simply awaiting orders to attack." Hirsch's report details the scale of the risk, noting that the West Bank's proximity to central Israeli cities like Kfar Saba and Herzliya, which are within 14 kilometers of the Mediterranean Sea, makes a potential incursion feasible. Terrorists penetrated 22 kilometers into Israeli territory on October 7, reaching Ofakim, indicating that a shorter incursion from the West Bank is a preparedness gap for Israel. The report emphasizes that this Palestinian force is armed with tens of thousands of weapons, possesses a larger personnel presence than agreed upon, and is driven by an ideology seeking Israel's destruction. It contrasts the current situation with the Oslo Accords, which permitted only a limited Palestinian Authority Police Force for maintaining local order and combating extremist groups. The force has reportedly grown from 12,000 personnel with limited weaponry to an estimated 70,000 "soldiers" armed with tens of thousands of rifles and pistols, dozens of armored vehicles, and military training. Concerns are raised about the source of these weapons, with the report suggesting many are smuggled into the West Bank or manufactured locally without Israeli consent, despite the Oslo Accords allowing for weapon increases only with mutual agreement. The report dismisses the idea that the force's evolution is solely due to the growing Palestinian population, citing relatively low crime rates in the West Bank as evidence that such an excessive force is difficult to justify for maintaining public order alone. Data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics indicated 1,335.6 criminal offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024.

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the West Bank now hosts an armed force ten times larger than the number of terrorists who invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, a force he wrote that was “simply awaiting orders to attack.”