Israeli security forces on Tuesday launched a military operation in the Palestinian city of Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as Israel shifts its focus to areas seen as hotbeds of militancy, days after a temporary ceasefire was established in the Gaza Strip. It started. .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the operation was the latest in a series of West Bank attacks over the past year and was aimed at “eradicating terrorism” and was “large-scale and significant.” He said it would be. The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health reported that eight people were killed and at least 35 injured in the first hours of the operation.
For Netanyahu, the operation in the West Bank could be a distraction from Gaza. In Gaza, Hamas militants paraded through the streets even before the ceasefire began on Sunday, in a show of force that showed they had survived 15 months of war. Even though Mr. Netanyahu has vowed to destroy it.
But with its strength in the Gaza Strip significantly reduced, Hamas has stepped up efforts to arm militants in the West Bank to open a new front against Israel, and Israeli attacks in the strip have It has become almost inevitable, analysts said.
The Jenin operation comes amid sharply escalating tensions in the West Bank, with armed groups gaining strength and settler violence against Palestinian civilians spiking.
President Trump on Monday rescinded sanctions the Biden administration imposed last year on dozens of far-right Israeli individuals and settler groups accused of violence against Palestinians and the seizure and destruction of Palestinian property.
The move, which came shortly after Trump’s inauguration, came as Jewish extremists attacked several Palestinian villages and torched vehicles and buildings, according to Palestinian officials and the Israeli military. .
The Palestinian Authority, which has limited control over parts of the West Bank and is a rival to Hamas, has launched an independent campaign against militants in Jenin in recent weeks, after leaving much of the region’s security to Israel. The strategy is being carried out. Deadly Israeli raids and drone strikes in the northern West Bank over the past year have destroyed streets and left many Palestinian civilians in fear.
Jenin residents and witnesses said on Tuesday that the local private hospital Al Amal was surrounded by Israeli forces and came under shelling.
“It’s like they came directly to us from Gaza with heavy vehicles, aggressive gunfire and drones,” Kamila Mahmoud, 22, a resident of Jenin, said in a telephone interview.
Residents said the injured included Palestinian Authority security personnel and medical workers. Brigadier General Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the Brigadier General Security Forces, said one Palestinian officer was killed.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions about the account.
Ahead of the Jenin attack, Israeli military commander Lt. Gen. Helj Halevi said in a statement on Monday, a day after the Gaza ceasefire took effect, that Israel “needs to prepare for a major counterterrorism operation” in Jenin. In the coming days, the West Bank will “pre-emptively arrest terrorists before they reach civilians.” Halevi announced his resignation on Tuesday, citing in part the military’s failure to protect Israel from the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, which sparked the Gaza war.
The West Bank is home to nearly 500,000 settlers and approximately 2.7 million Palestinians. Palestinians, and much of the world, have long believed that the territory is envisioned as part of a future independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, and that Jewish settlement is illegal.
Although Trump has sent mixed signals, his administration is expected to be staunchly pro-Israel. Some settler leaders have long cultivated close relationships with Trump associates, such as Mike Huckabee, whom Trump nominated to be his next ambassador.
Hardline members of Israel’s right-wing government had been demanding the Biden administration lift sanctions, one of a long list of executive orders signed by Trump shortly after taking office. Palestinian officials strongly criticized the move, saying it was likely to incite further violence.
The cancellation coincided with a second straight night of violence in the West Bank as extremist settlers protested the ceasefire. Israel Gantz, leader of the Umbrella Council representing all settlements, welcomed Trump’s decision but condemned all violence, even if it is carried out by a “small number” of settlers. Then he said.
Far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have opposed a ceasefire, the first phase of which calls for a six-week truce and a gradual exchange of 33 hostages being held in Gaza and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. are.
Pressure from Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as Biden administration officials and other mediators, helped seal the deal between Israel and Hamas. Trump had warned that if the Israeli hostages were not released by Inauguration Day, there would be “hell to pay”.
But on Monday, when asked if he thought the Gaza ceasefire would hold, Trump said he had “no confidence,” suggesting a lack of interest in the conflict. “It’s not our war,” he said. “It’s their war.”
“But I think they are very weakened on the other side,” he added, apparently referring to Hamas.
With its allies decimated in Lebanon, overthrown in Syria and weakened in Iran, Hamas is increasingly isolated. Aiming to launch a new front against Israel, Hamas issued a statement on Tuesday calling on the Palestinian masses to unite and confront Israeli forces in the West Bank.
“That’s the only place they see potential,” said Ehud Yaari, a fellow at the Israel-based Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Yaari noted that Israel has already raided Jenin more than a dozen times in the past year, and said Israel has a large-scale operation in Jenin as Palestinian Authority efforts appear to be failing. He said he had no choice but to start. He noted that Hamas is providing funding and more sophisticated weapons to militant groups in the West Bank, and attacks against Israel are intensifying.
Palestinian Authority Security Forces Spokesman Rajab said the Israeli attacks were aimed at “undermining the Palestinian Authority’s security operations” and that by causing chaos “the Palestinians, who enforce law and order, “This is a deliberate sabotage of efforts,” he said.
He said settler militants were also trying to destabilize the West Bank and try to prevent the return of Palestinian prisoners released under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. Israeli security chiefs labeled attacks by settlers against Palestinians as Jewish terrorism.
One of the Palestinian towns attacked by settlers on Monday was al-Hunduq in the northern West Bank, where Palestinian gunmen believed to be from another town opened fire on civilian buses and cars this month. Initially three Israelis were killed.
Al-Hunduq Mayor Luay Tayem said dozens of Israeli settlers began raiding the village and neighboring Zinsaft around 9:15 p.m. on Monday, and that the attacks continued until the settlers finally dispersed. He said it lasted about three hours. By Israeli security forces. In a telephone interview, they said they smashed car windows, set fire to a nursery and two bulldozers and tried to set fire to a house.
Two Israeli men were seriously injured in one of Monday’s attacks, apparently by Israeli security forces who attacked them, Israel’s emergency services said. Israeli authorities said they were investigating.
Aaron Boxerman and Mayra Novek contributed reporting from Rawan Sheikh Ahmad from Jerusalem and Haifa, Israel.
