Palestinian fighters in the West Bank try to emulate Hamas in Gaza

The alleys are shrouded in permanent semi-darkness, covered with black nylon tarps to hide the Palestinian fighters there from Israeli drones. Green Hamas flags and banners commemorating “martyrs” hang from the buildings, many of which have been badly damaged in Israeli raids and airstrikes in an attempt to a growing militancy in the area, fueled by the war in Gaza.

This isn’t Gaza or a traditional Hamas stronghold. It’s a refugee camp in Tulkarm, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank long ruled by the relatively moderate Palestinian faction of Fatah.

I recently met a local commander of these young militants, Muhammad Jaber, 25, in one of those dusty, ruined alleys. One of Israel’s most wanted men, he and other fighters like him say they have switched allegiances from the relatively moderate Fatah faction, which dominates the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to more radical groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad since the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7.

Wanted what lesson he had learned because of the war in Gaza, Mr. Jaber paused for a moment to think.

“Patience,” he said. “And strength. And courage.”

Refugee camps in the northern West Bank, such as Tulkarm, have been hotbeds of militancy for years, long before the Gaza war, when fighters opposed Israel’s ever-increasing settlement activity and the failure of the peace process to create a Palestinian state. After October 7, Hamas urged Palestinians to join the uprising against Israel, a call that appears to have been heard by some in these camps.

Militants like Mr Jaber want to drive Israelis out of the West Bank, which was occupied by Israel after the 1967 war. Some, like Hamas, even want to drive Israelis out of the region altogether.

More weapons and explosives are being produced in the West Bank, according to both the fighters themselves and Israeli military officials. They say the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, is losing ground to more radical Palestinian factions, which are actively fighting Israel and are receiving more support from Iran in the form of money and weapons smuggled into the area.

Fatah recognizes Israel’s right to exist and cooperates with its military. But some of the militants affiliated with Fatah, part of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades that were crucial to the second intifada of the early 2000s, have never had respect for the Palestinian Authority and its compromises with Israel and the occupation. Some, like Mr. Jaber, have simply declared their newfound loyalty to the more hardline Islamist factions.

Mr. Jaber, widely known by his nom de guerre, Abu Shujaa, which means Father of the Brave, leads the local branch of Islamic Jihad, which dominates the Tulkarm camp. He also leads a collective of all the militant factions in the area, including the Aqsa Martyrs Brigade there, known as the Khatiba. He switched from Fatah, he said, because it was Islamic Jihad and Hamas that brought the fight to Israel to end the occupation and create Palestine by force.

Mr. Jaber gained a kind of cult status in the spring when the Israeli army announced that it had killed him during a raid on the Tulkarm camp. Three days later, he came out alive at the funeral of other Palestinians killed in the same attack, amid cheers from camp residents.

We met in an alleyway lined with streets stripped to sand by Israeli bulldozers, before ducking into a storefront to avoid being spotted by drones. Thin and bearded, wearing a black Hugo Boss T-shirt and a Sig Sauer pistol on his hip, Mr. Jaber was watched by six bodyguards, some armed with M16 and M4 rifles loaded with magazines and optical sights.

It was a scorching day, everything was covered in dust, which lay in layers on the leaves of the few trees. The area was badly damaged by Israeli drone strikes and armored bulldozers, which have torn away many kilometers of pavement in what the army called an effort to find roadside bombs and other explosives.

The atmosphere was tense and there was also a certain caution as spotters and bodyguards searched for Israeli soldiers, sometimes disguised as city workers, garbage collectors or vendors pushing carts of fruit and vegetables.

Even before October 7, Israel was battling the growing threat of Palestinian militants like Mr. Jaber in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, including Tulkarm, Jenin and Nablus. Militant groups settled in the camps, which were originally set up to house refugees from the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war but later became impoverished urban settlements.

In the months leading up to the Gaza war, Israeli forces raided camps in the West Bank to locate weapons, find explosives factories and arrest or kill leaders like Mr. Jaber. Nearly a year ago, there was a major Israeli raid in Jenin, among other operations.

The Palestinian Authority and police no longer have control over these refugee camps. According to the militants, Israeli military officials and Palestinian officials, including Jenin Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub, the militants threaten to shoot police officers if they try to enter.

The Israeli actions are aimed at combating what a senior Israeli military official called the terrorist infrastructure: command centers, explosives labs and underground facilities that militants have tried to set up there using Iranian money and weapons.

Over the past two years, the West Bank camps have become safe havens, the officer noted, because the Palestinian Authority no longer operates there. The officer requested anonymity in accordance with Israeli military rules.

When the Israeli army attacks Tulkarm or Jenin, residents say the Palestinian Authority security forces remain in their barracks in the city centers and do not engage them.

While Mr Jaber insisted he was not at war with the Palestinian Authority, he condemned those “who have weapons and stand with Israel and do nothing.”

“Liberation of our country is our religion,” he said. “This is not my conflict, but the conflict of the people, a war for country, freedom and dignity.”

On Sunday, an Israeli drone strike on a house in the camp killed a family member: Saeed Jaber, 25, a wanted militant who had also switched from Fatah to Islamic Jihad.

Mr. Abu al-Rub, the governor, does not deny that the authorities’ security forces are staying out of the refugee camps, but he blames Israel. “If Israel does not come, there are no problems,” he said. “Israel is constantly trying to create divisions among us, because if they kill people, they can take the land.” It is Israel, he said, “that is causing chaos, that is entering our refugee camps for no reason, killing our youth, to weaken the PA and make people lose respect for their government.”

In the alleys of another impoverished refugee camp, Tulkarm, a young man appeared, dressed in fashionable black with North Face and Under Armour logos. He was 18 and said he had been wounded multiple times. He identified himself only as Qutaybah, his nom de guerre, in honor of an Arab general from more than 1,000 years ago. He belongs to Hamas, which dominates his camp.

Qutaybah has a long scar on his left arm, another on his stomach and wore a black patch over his left eye, which he said he lost in a drone strike on Dec. 19. He said he sustained his previous injuries in May 2023 when Israeli soldiers disguised as city workers entered the camp.

He said he was seriously wounded in that raid, in which two others were killed. His family members later confirmed his story, but it could not be confirmed directly with Israeli authorities.

Qutaybah was carrying an M16 with an optical sight, one of two weapons he said he stole during an attack in May on Bat Heferan Israeli village bordering the West Bank. The attack shocked many Israelis and appeared to make a quiet part of Israel less safe, foreshadowing further military action to counter the Palestinian fighters.

“Nobody comes to you and tells you to join the resistance,” Qutaybah said. “What do we have here? We live in a prison.”

He and his friends have learned some lessons from Gaza, he added.

“We see the Israelis killing our innocent women and children. Their plan is to carry out genocide here next time,” he said. Gaza will at least “encourage more people in the West Bank to resist.”

Qutaybah rubbed his black sneaker on the broken sidewalk in the alley.

“There is a bomb underneath,” he said. “If the Israelis come.”

The bodyguards and fighters stationed at the camp entrances work in shifts, carrying walkie-talkies to warn of Israeli incursions and of strangers who might be at risk of wandering in.

Most of those fighters, like Hassan, 35, have served time in Israeli prisons. Hassan has three daughters but would not talk about them, their future or his family name, only about his mission.

“Every entrance is blocked and watched,” he said. “The Israelis can come in at any moment.”

Also in the alley was Ayham Sroudji, 15, who was born in the refugee camp. He is not a member of any militant group and says he does well in school, when it is not canceled because of violence.

Did he want to become a teacher and help his people in that way? “Become a teacher?” he replied. “That doesn’t exist here. What have I seen in my life, except Israeli soldiers invading my camp?”

When asked about his dreams, he said, “I want to see a beach. I’ve never seen a beach in my life.”

Next to him stood Ahmed, 17, with an M4 rifle. “Isn’t there anyone who doesn’t want to see the beach, the land they took from us?” Ahmed said.

“I dream of seeing Jerusalem liberated,” Ayham added. “Israelis live in and enjoy our land, and we want to force them to get rid of what they have stolen.”

Then he pointed around him, at the dust, the rubble, the guns.

“Look what we wake up to,” he said. “Do you even see a sidewalk? Sometimes I dream of a smooth sidewalk and a sidewalk.”

Rami Nazzal contributed to the reporting of Tulkarm and Jenin, and Natan Odenheimer from Jerusalem.