Iran has spent the past several months quietly smuggling advanced arms to a growing number of terrorist proxies in Judea and Samaria, ramping up its efforts to transform the territory into a Gaza-style militant hub that can replicate Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attacks since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire began a month ago, according to Israeli intelligence centers and regional analysts.
Amir Avivi, a former senior Israeli military officer who regularly advises the country’s government, told the Washington Free Beacon Iran views Judea and Samaria as its best chance to maximize its proxy war against Israel after the hits the Islamic Republic, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza have taken over the past year. “Iran is really, really focused on trying to create another front,” Avivi said. “It didn’t just start after the 12-Day War, but they feel that this is the area they need to focus on because they’re having less success in Lebanon and in Gaza.”
While the Islamic Republic’s attempt to turn the West Bank into a hotbed of terror has not received significant attention in Western media, Israeli officials are on high alert. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the U.N. Security Council in September the threat from the West Bank is “real and imminent.”