Israeli forces launched a massive operation in the occupied West Bank overnight and on Wednesday, killing at least 10 Hamas fighters and isolating the restive city of Jenin.
The ongoing operation was one of the largest in the West Bank in months and is a reminder that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict extends beyond the war in Gaza, which began with a Hamas offensive on Oct. 7. Israel says it is driving militants out of the West Bank to prevent attacks, while Palestinians fear it could escalate the war and force them to abandon territories they want for a future state.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said “large forces” had entered Jenin, a former militant stronghold, as well as Tulkarim and the al-Fara refugee camp, which dates back to the 1948 Middle East war, all in the North West Bank.
According to him, Israeli forces killed three militants in an airstrike in Tulkarim and four people in an airstrike in Al-Fara. According to him, five other suspected militants were arrested and these raids are the first stage of an even larger operation. According to Palestinian authorities, four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in Jenin.
Hamas announced that 10 of its fighters were killed in the West Bank on Wednesday, including three of the four killed in Jenin. It remains unclear whether the fourth is also a fighter. The military said all of the dead were fighters.
Jenin Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told Palestinian radio that Israeli forces had surrounded the city, blocked entry and exit points and access to hospitals and destroyed the camp’s infrastructure.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said Israeli forces blocked roads leading to the hospital with mud barriers and cordoned off other medical facilities in Jenin. Shoshani said the military was trying to prevent militants from taking shelter in the hospitals.
An Associated Press journalist saw army vehicles blocking all entrances to al-Fara camp. Military jeeps and bulldozers entered the camp and soldiers were seen patrolling its alleys on foot. Water flowed from houses, whose tanks and pipes had been broken by the war, into damaged streets. Gunfire could be heard every few minutes.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz made a comparison with Gaza and called for similar actions in the West Bank.
“We must address the threat as we address the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever action is necessary. This is a war in every sense and we must win it,” he wrote on Platform X.
Shoshani said there is no plan to evacuate civilians.
Hamas called on Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up, calling the raids part of a broader plan to escalate the war in Gaza and blaming the escalation on US support for Israel. The militant group has called on security forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority, which are cooperating with Israel with Western support, to “join our people’s holy war.”
Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, called the raids a “serious renewal” and called for U.S. intervention. Abbas later announced he would cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia and return to the West Bank, where his government is based.
At least 652 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank in the past 10 months since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Palestinian ministry. Most of them died during raids, which often lead to armed conflicts with the militants.
Israel says the operation is necessary to eliminate Hamas and other extremist groups. Attacks against Israelis have increased since the start of the war.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the bodies of seven people were taken to a hospital in Tubas, another West Bank city, and two more to a hospital in Jenin. The ministry identified the two people killed in Jenin as Qassam Jabarin, 25, and Asem Balut, 39. Hamas claimed Jabarin was a militant and said two other militants, Muhammad Abu Zumeiro and Ahmad al-Sous, were killed in Jenin.
Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians want all three future states.
Israel has built a large number of settlements across the West Bank, home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers. The settlers have Israeli citizenship, while the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule and the Palestinian Authority has limited control over population centers.
The Gaza war began when Hamas-led militants overran southern Israel, attacking military bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping nearly 250 more. The militants are still holding 108 hostages, about a third of them believed to be dead after most of the rest were released during a November ceasefire.
Israel responded with an attack that killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, several of them militants, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. About 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced, many of these people repeatedly displaced, and Israeli shelling and ground operations have caused widespread destruction.
Palestinian health officials say at least 24 people, including five women and five children, were killed in Israeli strikes overnight and on Wednesday. AP journalists confirmed the death toll at two hospitals.
Eight people, including two brothers aged 6 and 17, were killed in an attack on displaced people’s tents near the central city of Deir al-Bala.
“He’s alive!” cried his mother, who carried the teenager’s body to the morgue. She later cried and cradled them both.
Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths, as the militants battle in densely populated areas. The military rarely comments on individual attacks in Gaza, which often kill women and children.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months negotiating a ceasefire that would result in the release of the remaining hostages. But talks have repeatedly stalled, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising a “total victory” over Hamas and the militant group demanding a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from the territory.
After several days of talks in Egypt, there was no sign of progress and the talks will move to Qatar this week.
Frankel and Nasser write for the Associated Press. Frankel reported from Jerusalem. AP writers Sami Magdi in Cairo and Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza City, contributed to this report.
