Iran-Israel strife leaves Palestinians feeling in the middle, yet sidelined

With soaring Israel-Iran tensions threatening to tip the Middle East into a wider war, the saber-rattling is being met with a mixture of suspense and disinterest by war-wary Palestinians in the West Bank.

Amid the threats of incoming Iranian and Hezbollah rockets and drones – retribution for Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran – shoppers move hesitantly in Ramallah supermarket aisles.

But they’re passing up the canned foods and flour they normally stock up on in national emergencies. Instead, they’re gravitating toward snacks, such as nuts and chips. Instead of stocking up on water, they are stocking up on spirits.

Families are going ahead with weddings across the West Bank this week and weekend, as part of the packed summer wedding season. 

It is partly a laissez-faire attitude, partly a surrender to a grim reality for Palestinians in the West Bank. They are beset by violent Israeli settler attacks and are in the firing line of Iran and Hezbollah’s anticipated response, which has caused increasing resentment and a sense of helplessness. 

Palestinians here are without bomb shelters to run to or an option to flee the region on a flight.

Making matters worse is the complete lack of leadership and guidance from the Palestinian Authority, political factions in the West Bank, or Hamas in Gaza.

Neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas has issued a single statement about the prospect of Iranian or Hezbollah missile strikes in or near the West Bank and Gaza.

With the threat of missiles being launched without a moment’s notice, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are on their own.

“We absolutely feel something not normal is going on, but what can we do about it?” asks architect Ghanem Omar as he shops at a neighborhood supermarket in Ramallah Wednesday. “All we can do is wait and see. And watch.”

“People here can only count on God and their neighbors if anything happens or if a war actually breaks out,” he adds. “It’s not like we can count on the leadership to provide anything.”

Instead, West Bank Palestinians’ emergency fallback plan is to “unite, like in the first and second intifadas and in earlier crises.”

Paying the price

Like many Palestinians in the West Bank, Raghad Abu Amer, a young mother, does not anticipate that a full-blown war will break out between Israel, Iran, and its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“I doubt anything would happen,” she says.

But she does fear that the West Bank will “continue to pay the price,” as deadly Israeli military operations and settler attacks increase – killing 14 West Bank Palestinians on Tuesday alone. These attacks have been pushed out of the world’s headlines amid the focus on the dangers of a regional war. 

Nasser Nasser/AP

A protester carries a poster with the image of Marwan Barghouti, the highest-profile Palestinian prisoner held by Israel, at a rally in solidarity with Gaza and prisoners held by Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Aug. 3, 2024.

“My fear is that no one will pay attention to the destruction and daily killing in the West Bank. Not the Palestinian Authority nor the international community,” she says.

And should missiles fall and a wider war erupt, in a worst-case scenario she is stocked up on “snacks, milk, and diapers for my daughter.”

Bader Abdel Razek, owner of a neighborhood supermarket, says another reason for West Bankers’ lack of preparedness is the fact that the economy has dried up and salaries have been slashed since the war began in Gaza. 

“The West Bank has become like an old T-shirt forgotten on a drying rack since the beginning of the war,” says Mr. Abdel Razek. 

Normally when a Mideast-wide crisis hits the West Bank, Mr. Abdel Razek says he stocks up on basic goods. Not this time.

“We have seen a clear economic impact of the war [in Gaza] on the West Bank since the beginning of the year,” he says. “Since then, we haven’t seen much purchasing power or anything to encourage me to stock,” he adds, with few customers able or willing to stock up on essentials and food “even with a possible war around the corner.”

Gazans tired of war

Meanwhile, besieged, starving, and beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza fear that escalation by Iran or Hezbollah would prolong the war there – and dash any hopes for a cease-fire, healing, or rebuilding anytime soon.

Rafat Naim, a businessman, says Gazans are against Iran opening a new front in response to Mr. Haniyeh’s assassination as that would “take attention away and cover the massacres taking place in Gaza.”

“We prefer that [Iran’s] response is used as political leverage, rather than a military option that would prolong the war,” says Mr. Naim. “We don’t want war to expand. This war needs to stop so we can start dealing with the problems it has created.”

Tala Albanna, a law student at Gaza University and aspiring writer, says she doubts Iran would trigger a regional war – but still fears the fallout. 

“Such a move would distract people from Gaza. We are starving, and we are beginning to see new problems emerge that we need to find solutions for,” she says of the destruction, famine, and health crises gripping Gaza.

“We hope that a war does not break out on a new front because people would forget us. We want it to stop,” says Ms. Albanna.

Distrust of Iran

The prospect of Iranian and Hezbollah rockets fired into Israel has not led to Palestinians publicly cheering on Iran.

Many retain deep-seated suspicions about Iran’s attempts to use the Palestinian cause to further its aims, with some accusing Iran of using Palestinian lives as pawns in its geopolitical struggle and asymmetrical warfare.

Many Palestinians say their enemy’s enemy is not their friend.

In an Arab Barometer survey carried out between September and October 2023, 47% of Palestinian respondents said they viewed growing Iranian influence in the region as a “critical” threat to their national security, and a further 25% saw the threat as “important.” Less than one-third, 28% of Palestinians surveyed, had a favorable view of Iran, and 65% had an unfavorable view.

A majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, 57%, said they viewed Iranian drone and missile strikes against Israel in April as “just a show” and not “support for the Palestinian people,” according to a June poll by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. 

“Iran talks about the Palestinian cause, but they are not coming here with an army to liberate us; they are not protecting us from settlers,” says Lutfi, a Ramallah landlord, who gave only his first name. 

“They only follow their interests and launch some rockets to boost their popularity at home. Israel and Iran are the perfect partners in destruction, and we are in the middle,” he adds, “forgotten.”