The Tulkarm and Tubas brigades in the northern West Bank have lately been jettisoned to the forefront of resistance against the Zionsit entity’s murderous incursion into the West Bank. This article looks at the history of these fighting formations to understand where they arrived from.
Leading up to this point, these brigades have been helping their people, and undermiing the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in those areas This is similar to what had already happened in Jenin and Nablus. This process – in which militias comprising fighters from multiple Palestinian organizations, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, gain strength and engage in defense against Israel – began before the outbreak of the Gaza war. And since then it has steadily increased, and in the recent months the uninterrupted resistance in Gaza had encouraged increased activity in the West Bank.
Tactics like firing at nearby ‘Israeli’ localities and tried infiltrating them occurred before the Gaza war, but the recent months have seen an escalation in their activity and their ability to resist of the Palestinian Authority’s apparatuses. A conspicuous example is a series of clashes between the Tulkarm Brigade militia and the PA forces, which included exchanges of gunfire. In several incidents, Tulkarm prevented PA forces from entering the refugee camps in the area and was able to seize one of their vehicles. Similar clashes took place recently between the Tubas Brigade militia and the PA forces.
**The Tulkarm And Tubas Brigades – Groups Comprising Fighters From Various Factions Modeled On Nablus And Jenin Militias**
The last two years have seen a significant surge in Palestinian resistance in the West Bank. A conspicuous phenomenon has been the appearance of militias such as the Lion’s Den in Nablus and the Jenin Brigade in Jenin, which include fighters from various Palestinian factions and thus embody military cooperation between these factions. Hamas and PIJ leaders have praised this model and recommended to expand it to all parts of the West bank, and have in fact announced that they are acting to achieve this. The Tulkarm Brigade and the Tubas Brigade, which emerged in the last two years, are indeed based on this model, and now coordinate the operations against the Zionist entity in their respective governorates.
The Tulkarm Brigade comprises two separate militias, each based in one of the city’s two refugee camps. The first, called “Tulkarm Brigade–Al-Quds Brigades,” was founded in March 2022 and defends the Nour Al-Shams refugee camp in the city. This militia is affiliated exclusively with the PIJ, and its founder, Sayf Abu Libda, who was killed by ‘Israel’ in April 2022, held ties with the Jenin Brigade. The second militia, called “Tulkarm Brigade–Rapid Response,” is based in the city’s other refugee camp, the Tulkarm camp, and was founded in 2023 in response to the killing of fighters from the Lion’s Den militia in Nablus. This militia includes fighters from several organizations: Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, whose fighters comprise the majority in this refugee camp; the Hamas military wing, the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the PIJ military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades and the Jund Allah organization. The fighters from the various organizations operate both separately and jointly. The fighters themselves have disclosed that some of their operations are carried out by a joint *nuhba* (elite force).
Moreover, despite the apparent division of the Tulkarm Brigade into two militias, in practice there is cooperation and coordination between them, as noted by the militia members and by the Palestinian and Arab media. An article on the Palestinian Metras website stated: “The two [Tulkarm refugee camps] support one another. When the Israeli army besieges one of the camps, the fighters from the other come out to defend it and engage the enemy.” An article in the *Al-Arabi Al-Jadid* daily quoted a member of the Tulkarm Brigade–Rapid Response militia, based in the Tulkarm refugee camp, as saying: “We all fight in a single trench, all the factions [together] in fraternity and unity, and in coordination with the brigades in the Nour Al-Shams [refugee] camp.” Further proof of the coordination between the two parts of the Tulkarm Brigade came in May 2024: After the PA forces killed a member of the Tulkarm Brigade–Al-Quds Brigades, a joint statement was issued by “the brigade in the Nour Al-Shams refugee camp and the brigade in the Tulkarm refugee camp and all their military organizations,” which called for an uprising against the PA. The cooperation is also evident on Telegram: Each of the various organizations in Tulkarm has its own Telegram channel, but all of the channels identify as affiliated with the Tulkarm Brigade. For example, one channel is called “The Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigade–Tulkarm Brigade.”
Since its inception the Tulkarm Brigade has incorporated more and more fighters and has grown steadily larger. Its fighters build explosive charges which they plant at the entrances to the refugee camps to repel both the IDF and the PA forces. In the Nour Al-Shams camp the fighters are divided into several units: the observation and monitoring unit; the engineering unit, in charge of building explosive charges; and the commando unit whose gunmen clash with the IDF. The objective of the Tulkarm Brigade is the liberation of Palestine and the Al-Aqsa Flood war (the current war in Gaza) created a shift in their thinking: it “gave more meaning to their resistance, so that Israel [is now perceived] as an illusion that can be defeated and the Israeli army is perceived as cowardly.”
In July 2022 the PIJ’s military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, formed a new militia in the Tubas governorate as well, called the Tubas Brigade, which was later joined by fighters from other organizations, especially from Hamas’ Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades. According to a June 5, 2024 article in *Al-Arabi Al-Jadid*, the Tubas Brigade operates primarily in the Al-Fara’a refugee camp and is closely coordinated with the “resistance brigades” in other governorates of the northern West Bank, such as Jenin and Tulkarm. The article also noted that, since October 7, 2023, there has been an increase in resistance coming out of this camp.
**Shooting Attacks and The Goal of Replicating October 7**
Since its inception, the Tulkarm Brigade has been carrying out shooting attacks against nearby ‘Israeli’ localities, with the idea to push back against them the way Hamas did in southern ‘Israel’ on October 7, 2023. For example, the Tulkarm Brigade–Rapid Response militia, which, as previously mentioned, was established around February 2023, began claiming shooting attacks as early as March 2023, including an attack on the ‘Israeli’ village of Bat Hefer, near Tulkarm, at “very close range”.
After October 7 and the outbreak of the war, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Tulkarm Brigade–Rapid Response militia Telegram channels continued to publish statements claiming attacks. For instance, on October 7 itself, the Tulkarm Brigade–Rapid Response militia announced that fighters from the PIJ and from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades had carried out a joint attack on Bat Hefer “as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.” On October 9, the militia called on Fatah Chairman and PA President Mahmoud Abbas to publish “a clear decision” regarding joining the war, and demanded that members of the PA forces “strike every Israeli settler and soldier.” On October 13, 2023 the brigade reached a position very close to Bat Hefer and opened fire on the village, and on March 1, 2024, it claimed further shooting attacks on Bat Hefer, on the nearby settlement of Avnei Hefetz and on an IDF checkpoint. On June 4, 2024 a Tulkarm Telegram channel announced that members of the group called “the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade Youth of Revenge and of Liberation–Tulkarm” had carried out a “shooting attack on the Nitzanei Oz checkpoint, west of Tulkarm.”
“Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade Youth of Revenge and of Liberation–Tulkarm” reported on May 30, 2024 that, on the previous day, a squad of elite militants had infiltrated Bat Hefer with the goal of assassinating a Shin Bet officer living there. According to the post, the assassination was not ultimately carried out, but the militants “withdrew safely” after taking a rifle and a pistol from the man’s home while he was there with his children. In a separate post, the group threatened: “This is a warning for the enemy: If you carry out operations in Tulkarm as your leaders have announced, then we will replicate the scene of October 7 in Bat Hefer, Avnei Hefetz, and in other settlements. Then we will see who will besiege whom.”
The Tubas Brigade militia carries out similar shooting attacks, which are reported on its affiliated Telegram channels. On December 14, 2022, for example, the group’s fighters opened fire on Israeli vehicles near the Palestinian village of Tamun near Nablus. On April 5, 2023 they attacked an IDF checkpoint and on May 6, 2024 they ambushed Israeli forces.
**Tulkarm Brigades On Palestinian Authority Forces: They Are Traitors, Collaborate With The Enemy**
Tensions between the PA and the Tulkarm Brigade’s militias began in the months immediately following the militias’ appearance. For instance, in August 2023, after a member of the Tulkarm Brigades–Rapid Reaction militia was killed in a firefight with PA forces, the local Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade group (which is part of the Tulkarm Brigade) published statements accusing the PA of treason. The group also barred PA forces from the Tulkarm refugee camp and threatened to open fire on them if they entered it, just as it fires on Israeli forces entering the camps. This came after the PA turned against them and shot some of the members.
These tensions reached new heights in late March and early April of 2024, when several clashes erupted between the PIJ’s Tulkarm Brigade–Jerusalem Companies militia and PA forces after the latter injured the militias’ commander while attempting to arrest him. The Tulkarm Brigade took action after the incident and announced a civil uprising against the PA, which included completely blocking the entrances to the Tulkarm and Nour Al-Shams camps with dirt mounds and explosive charges. In addition, Tulkarm Brigades engaged in firefights with PA forces. During the firefight, armed militants seized a vehicle from the PA forces, placed a PIJ flag on it, and drove it around the Nour Al-Shams refugee camp as an act of defiance against the PA.
At the funeral of the militant who was killed in the clashes, a Tulkarm Brigade member delivered a speech against the PA while standing by the stolen vehicle. He said that the “martyred” militant had been killed by “treasonous” fire, vowed to take revenge against the PA for “every drop of blood,” and promised that no force on earth could cause the “resistance” to return the vehicle to the PA.[](https://www.memri.org/reports/terror-organizations-consolidating-their-control-over-tulkarm-tubas-northern-west-bank#_edn31 )
A similar incident took place in May 2024, during which PA forces killed another member of the PIJ’s Tulkarm Brigades–Jerusalem Comopanies. In response, militants from the group opened fire and threw IEDs at local offices of the PA forces. A statement issued by the “Tulkarm Refugee Camp Brigade” and the “Nour Al-Shams Refugee Camp Brigade” on behalf of all the involved militias called the PA forces traitors and collaborators and urged all locals to take to the street in marches of rage against the corrupt PA. A few weeks later, the Tulkarm Brigades again prevented PA forces from entering the Tulkarm refugee camp after a PA delegation refused to meet its demands, which included forming a committee to investigate the incidents in which its members had been killed by PA forces and stopping the persecution of militia fighters.
The Tulkarm brigade was been active in fighting infiltration. For instance, in November 2023 a body in Tulkarm called the Resistance Security Forces accused two locals of collaborating with Israel, interrogated them, and executed them. [](https://www.memri.org/reports/terror-organizations-consolidating-their-control-over-tulkarm-tubas-northern-west-bank#_edn35 )
**Tubas Brigade Threatens PA Apparatuses: “Whoever Is Out To Kill Us Will Not Be Received With Flowers”**
Similar incidents have occurred recently in the Tubas governorate, where the local brigade likewise challenges the Palestinian Authority. The PA forces, for their part, have tried to maintain their control and installed many checkpoints throughout the governorate, especially in the vicinity of the Al-Fara’a camp, and have been arresting brigade members and seizing their weapons and military gear. This has led to many clashes between the brigade and the PA forces in the recent months. In early June, for example, as the PA forces attempted to arrest a member of the brigade, the two sides exchanged gunfire and dozens of fighters blocked roads around Tubas, especially at the entrances to the Al-Fara’a camp, and burned tires. Other attempts by the PA to arrest brigade members and seize military gear led to further gunfights that eventually forced the PA forces to release the detainees and return the gear.
In a statement it issued in early June, the Tubas brigade expressed puzzlement that the members of the PA forces, “who purport to be part of our [Palestinian] people,” pursue the brigade members, dismantle the explosive charges they plant against the ‘Israeli’ forces and seize their vehicles and weapons. “We constantly meet death face to face,” the statement said, “and we do not care who is confronting us” – an ‘Israeli’ force or the PA apparatuses. A high-ranking official in the brigade added: “Our message is clear… We do not consider the PA a target, but whoever is out to kill us will not be received with flowers…”[](https://www.memri.org/reports/terror-organizations-consolidating-their-control-over-tulkarm-tubas-northern-west-bank#_edn39 )
**Cast Into The Frontlines**
As the Zionist entity turns it machine of death and destruction towards the West Bank, Tulkarm and Tubas Brigades are not just fighting their proxy, but directly responsible for the defense of the area, and able to create a new front. It is encouraging to know that these brigades have been sharpening their swords in the fights leading up to this point.
https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/08/30/10786/
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