In the last year, it has increasingly sought to provide terror organizations in the West Bank with weapons and it hopes that the PIJ group could carve out a zone of control that would threaten Israel. The activities of Iran-backed groups, such as PIJ and Hamas benefit Iran because it gives Tehran a way to increase its “unity” of fronts against Israel.
This means that it can add Jenin to other areas, such as Gaza, Southern Lebanon and the Golan border area where Iran has activities and backs threats. In Tehran's long-term view, it may believe it can create conditions in Jenin similar to what it did in southern Lebanon and then Gaza in the 1990s and early 2000s. For now Tehran and Hezbollah appear to be monitoring the situation.
Unifying the fronts, a concept Iran has mentioned in the last months, is one way Iran benefits. This means bringing together threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, PIJ, and others in various places. However, if its tentacles in the West Bank are curtailed then it could lose one of those fronts. However Iran likely calculates that the benefit and risk is more than the reward.
For instance the goal is to embed among civilians and increase the risk for Israeli operations. This also means Iran can leverage this for diplomatic means. Iran operates a diplomatic outreach in the Gulf and hopes that these tensions could harm Israel’s ties to the Gulf. Iran openly says this, recent articles suggest it hopes that it can unite Muslim countries against Israel. READ MORE
