In 2022, dozens of “insurgent” boys – “terrorists” for Israel – had created a buzz on TikTok and Telegram, depicting their fight against the Israeli army in Nablus, in the north of the West Bank. But last Thursday, June 6, the United States announced sanctions against this group, called the “Lion’s Den”, for their role in a series of violent incidents against Israeli settlements, as well as against Israeli and Palestinian security forces, between September 2022 and April this year. “The United States condemns all acts of violence committed in the West Bank, regardless of the perpetrators,” and it “will use the tools at its disposal to denounce those who threaten peace and stability,” the spokesperson said. of the State Department, Matthew Miller, in a press release.
The group emerged in August 2022, following the assassination by Israeli forces of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, an activist from Nablus, nicknamed “The Lion of Nablus”. Very quickly, young people in the city, aged 20 on average, will take up arms, and be responsible for a large part of the rise in Palestinian violence: while 61 gunshot attacks, including one deadly, against Israeli soldiers and civilians were recorded in and around Nablus in 2022. Only three attacks took place in 2020, according to Israeli military records. However, the “Lions’ Den” is seeing its support gradually increase: in October 2022, its Telegram account had 130,000 subscribers, including many Palestinians frustrated to see Israeli colonies taking root in the territory and the inanity of the Authority Palestinian, considered corrupt and ineffective.
A role model for younger generations
Faced with these attacks, Israeli special forces increased raids to flush out the leader of the movement, Wadee Al-Hawah. In mid-November of the same year, the latter was shot dead at his home by rocket launcher fire. After this offensive, the group’s numbers gradually declined – from 60 at its peak in September to between 10 and 30 in March 2023, according to different estimates. Some members were killed during Israeli operations, while around 30 surrendered to the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian officials said, after being promised protection against Israeli reprisals in exchange for surrendering their weapons and acceptance of a few months of detention.
Since then, the group has become a model for younger generations, who grow up with their images and “exploits” with weapons in hand, shared on social networks. “These Palestinian fighters grew up without a clear political horizon. Israeli crimes, settlement expansion, high unemployment – all this gave them the feeling that they had to do something different and take matters into their own hands,” he said. At New York Times Amid al-Masry, a Fatah community leader in Nablus. In October 2023, a French collective close to the far left also echoed these actions, choosing “La Fosse aux Lyons” as its name. The latter had organized a demonstration in support of “the Palestinian resistance”, despite its ban by the Lyon prefecture.