Keywords: Israel, West Bank, militants, Gaza Strip A. A. ERMAKOV, PhD Student I. V. RYZHOV, Doctor of Historical Sciences Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod The armed confrontation between the State of Israel and radical Palestinian organizations demonstrates various scenarios for the development of the conflict, the arena of which is the territory of the Palestinian National Authority ( PA) - the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.1 did not bring the expected peace to the Jewish State. Since the evacuation of the settlements, anti-Israeli forces have become more active in the sector, which led to an armed confrontation the following year, during which the Israelis faced an enemy capable of challenging the regular army. The level of preparation of the militants for military operations was quite high. "Of course, the militants we are fighting here are not Hezbollah militant groups. But it should be noted how much their training has increased recently. Let's say that before, they had no idea about intelligence at all. Now all their actions are clearly planned. It is obvious that the militants in Gaza have improved both in their tactical skills and in working with weapons, " 2 said a soldier from one of the Israeli special forces. The military pressure exerted by the Jewish State on Palestinian radicals to free Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by militants on June 25, 2006 near the Kerem Shalom border checkpoint, was not enough, and Tel Aviv did not dare to conduct a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. At that time, there was a strong view among the Israeli leadership that it was necessary to avoid prolonged military operations on the territory of the Palestinian enclave*. Although the positions of the Minister of Internal Security Avi Dichter and the head of the Shin Bet (or Shin Bet - Israel's political counterintelligence) Yuval Diskin were directly opposite-they both supported a large-scale military operatio ... Read more