Israel conducted an arrest raid in the city of Jenin in Samaria, on Monday, killing five Palestinians and injuring at least 91 others. Two Israeli soldiers and five Israel Border Police officers were also hurt.

The Palestinian Authority typically arrests criminals in the disputed territory of Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. But over the last couple of years, their security forces have deteriorated to the point that they can no longer do so—forcing Israeli forces to step in.

Israel security forces were trying to apprehend two terrorists (one from Hamas and one from Islamic Jihad) when Palestinians opened fire on them. They also launched explosives, one of which damaged an Israeli armored vehicle. To help evacuate forces, Israel Defense Forces (idf) helicopters fired at the gunmen; the last time the idf used aircraft in an attack in the West Bank was the early 2000s. The fighting lasted over eight hours.

The clash is just one in a campaign of near-daily counterterrorism attacks conducted by Israel in the West Bank. Many Islamist Palestinian leaders boasted about the “heroic response” of their fighters after the scuffle and celebrated the damage done to the military vehicles. Israeli anti-terrorism efforts in the area have been largely unsuccessful in eradicating the armed groups.

Coming alliance: Psalm 83 prophesies of an end-time alliance that will include the Arab Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank (descended from “the Philistines,” verse 7).

Their motive is to “cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (verse 4). This bloc is brought together over a hatred for Israel and desire to destroy it.

As Trumpet writer Joel Hilliker explained in his article “‘The State of Palestine Is Long Overdue’,” this hatred is at the heart of the Arab-Jew conflict: “Two states cannot peacefully coexist when one wants to obliterate the other.”

Watch the West Bank: Keep a close eye on the fighting in the West Bank to see the formation of the Psalm 83 alliance. It won’t just affect the nation of Israel. This bloc will eventually affect every single person on Earth.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains where this confederation is leading in Chapter 4 of his free booklet The King of the South.