Tulkarem, occupied West Bank – Tea, coffee and assault rifles lie on the table in front of Maysa’s* front door in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern, Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Every now and then she emerges with more trays of drinks and cookies for the small group of young Palestinian fighters gathered in her alley under rows of fabric roofs that cover the spaces between the warehouses.

“These are our sons, our souls. All they want is a dignified life,” says Maysa, a 40-year-old woman with a bright face and warm smile.

“People all over the world, in all countries, claim to be democratic and want to live freely. What about our youth?

“You have no choice but the path of armed resistance,” she says, standing behind the seated fighters. “There is no land left – the occupation has taken everything.”

The fighters at the Nur Shams refugee camp are part of a broader phenomenon Resurgence of Palestinian armed resistance to the decades-long Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

It is concentrated in the northern areas began in the Jenin refugee camp more than two years ago in June 2021, before spreading to Nablus, Jericho and Tulkarem, among others.

As a result of this development, armed groups emerged consisting of young men between the ages of 17 and 35, most of whom were in their early 20s. With limited capabilities, the groups focus on defending against Israeli military attacks on the camps and attacking Israeli military checkpoints and illegal settlements.

With his rifle at his chest, Ziad*, a high-ranking leader of the Tulkarem Brigades, is a man of few words. “It is our right to defend ourselves,” the fighter, who is in his mid-20s, told Al Jazeera.

Israel’s ongoing war in the besieged Gaza Strip, where more than 18,200 Palestinians, including over 7,000 children, have been killed, “only encourages more men to join the resistance,” he adds.

The latest Israeli attack began on October 7, when the Gaza-based armed resistance group Hamas launched a surprise operation on Israeli territory outside the Gaza Strip, killing about 1,200 people and capturing about 200.

Intensification of raids

In the last two years, Israel significantly increased his deadly raids in the northern occupied West Bank and has killed dozens of fighters through drone strikes and targeted assassinations. This significantly affected the continuation of some resistance groups.

But armed resistance continues in Tulkarem, particularly in the Nur Shams refugee camp, one of two camps in the city that are home to a total of over 34,500 Palestinians who were expelled from their homes in Haifa, Jaffa and Caesarea by Zionist militias during the 1948 Nakba .

Despite numerous deadly raids on both camps in the past two months, leaving dozens of civilians and fighters dead, Israeli forces have been unable to enter Nur Shams on foot, deterred by obstacles and a significant number of improvised explosive devices.

While smaller, hand-thrown canisters are typically more common, there has been one in the last two years Peak production of larger canisters filled with flammable powder. These handmade bombs, used throughout the northern occupied West Bank, are designed to slow the army’s attacks and damage Israeli armored vehicles, even disabling them.

“The occupying army thinks a thousand times before entering Nur Shams,” says journalist and Tulkarem resident Sami al-Sai.

“You don’t enter it on foot. They are using bulldozers because the amount of explosive canisters in Nur Shams is unprecedented,” he told Al Jazeera.

In a 30-hour raid on both camps on October 19 and 20, the Israeli army killed 13 Palestinians, including five children, and injured 25 others.

“The army used unmanned drones – they killed seven people in one hit. The rest were killed by snipers, including some of the children,” says al-Sai.

Growing support for armed resistance

The Israeli army’s raids had a greater impact on the other camp in Tulkarem, which suffered severe damage to roads and infrastructure. Since the army has failed to enter Nur Shams on foot and there have been no attempts for several weeks, fighters believe an ambush is imminent.

“We expect them to come any moment. They could come while we sit here and talk,” Ziad said, adding that “the fighters are ready.”

For Ziad and other fighters, Israel’s past three decades of increasing military occupation and illegal settlements, as well as fruitless negotiations, mean that “armed resistance is the only solution.”

“What was taken by force can only be taken back by force,” says Ziad, quoting a well-known speech by the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. “It is pointless to engage in negotiations,” he adds.

Popular support for armed resistance has increased across the occupied West Bank over the past two years, with many fighters killed in the process Symbols of resistance and thousands take part in their funeral processions.

Across from Ziad sits Laith*, another experienced fighter in his late 20s.

“Despite the lack of capabilities, there is armed resistance in the West Bank that is damaging to the occupation,” Laith says. “Even if we get killed, ten more will show up,” he tells Al Jazeera.

The young men are aware of their mortality and know they could soon be killed, he adds, but they are willing to give their lives for the cause. “Nothing happens overnight,” says Laith. “It requires a lot of sacrifice and we have to work hard so that the next generation can pick up where we left off and lead us to liberation.”

Pressure from Israel and the PA

Two armed resistance groups were formed in Tulkarem in less than a year.

Fighters then began to band together in Nur Shams 25-year-old Saif Abu Libdeh was killed by the Israeli army in Jenin on April 2, 2022.

Abu Libdeh laid the foundation for the formation of an armed resistance group in the camp. He spent time in Jenin, learning from the fighters there and appearing at press conferences and military parades with his face covered.

After several large-scale Israeli army raids on Nablus, Jenin and Jericho in January and February this year, the armed group Tulkarem Brigades-Saraya al-Quds, loosely linked to the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), began to emerge more prominently .

Months later, a second group was formed following the March 23 killing of militant Ameer Abu Khadija. The Tulkarem Brigades-Fast Response is affiliated with the Fatah Party’s armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

One of the key factors in the formation of armed resistance groups over the past two years has been the coming together of fighters from across the Palestinian political spectrum, despite longstanding resistance fighters internal strife at the leadership level of their parties – including Hamas, Fatah, PIJ, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.

The groups’ ability to unite younger fighters – who are linked to traditional armed groups but often do not take orders from them – has made them targets of both the Israeli occupation and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA). put many fighters under pressure Accepting bribes and amnesty in exchange for giving up their weapons.

On several occasions during funeral processions for killed fighters, The PA security forces have become violent. They fired tear gas at crowds, carried out preventive arrests of event participants, forcibly confiscated Hamas, PIJ and PFLP party flags and fired live ammunition into the air.

The Palestinian Authority also responded to popular protests in the occupied West Bank on October 17 against the Israeli bombing of Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. Killing of a 12-year-old Palestinian girl in Jenin.

Mehraj Shehadeh is the father of senior militant Jihad, who was killed along with three other militants in a targeted assassination attempt on November 6. Sitting in his living room in the Tulkarem refugee camp, Shehadeh says his son and others have “sent a strong message to all leaders – from.” [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas to Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.”

“They said, ‘We are the ones who unite the people on the streets – not you.’ They united people with their guns and their blood,” he told Al Jazeera. Although Shehadeh himself works for the Palestinian Authority’s security services, he does not agree with all of the Palestinian Authority’s policies, especially against the militants.

“If they had 30 bullets, they would divide them among themselves,” he continues, referring to the fighters as a “school.”

“More than 17,000 people attended her funeral. It was one of the largest mourning parades in the history of Tulkarem.”

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of residents and fighters.