Israel focused on a region perceived as a militancy hotspot just days after a brief cease-fire in Gaza, and Israeli security forces launched a military operation in Jenin, a Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Tuesday.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation, the most recent in a series of raids in the West Bank over the last year, was intended to “eradicate terrorism” and would be “extensive and significant.” According to the health ministry of the Palestinian Authority, the operation’s initial hours saw at least 35 injuries and eight fatalities.
Even before the cease-fire began on Sunday, Hamas fighters marched through the streets of Gaza, demonstrating that the group had survived the 15-month conflict in spite of Mr. Netanyahu’s promises to destroy it. Mr. Netanyahu may use the West Bank operation as a diversion from Gaza.
However, Hamas has stepped up its attempts to arm militants in the West Bank to launch another front against Israel because its power in Gaza has significantly decreased, experts say, making an Israeli attack there all but certain.
As the militants’ authority has increased and settler violence against Palestinian civilians has skyrocketed, the Jenin operation coincides with a dramatic increase in tensions in the West Bank.
President Trump lifted sanctions on dozens of far-right Israelis and settlement organizations guilty of violence against Palestinians that were put in place by the Biden administration last year on Monday.
According to Palestinian sources and the Israeli military, the action was taken soon after Mr. Trump took office, while Jewish fanatics were raiding multiple Palestinian communities and burning cars and other property.
After mostly leaving security in the region to Israel, the Palestinian Authority, a competitor of Hamas and a group with limited control over sections of the West Bank, has been conducting its own campaign against armed terrorists in Jenin in recent weeks. Over the last year, several Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli drone strikes and deadly incursions in the northern West Bank.
On Tuesday, Jenin residents and witnesses said that Israeli soldiers had encircled and fired against Al-Amal, a private hospital in the area.
In a phone call, Jenin resident Kamila Mahmoud, 22, said, “It’s as if they came to us straight from Gaza with large vehicles, aggressive gunfire, and drones.”
Locals reported that among the wounded were security personnel and medical personnel from the Palestinian Authority. The Authority’s security forces spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Anwar Rajab, reported that one Palestinian officer had been slain.
Questions concerning the stories were not immediately answered by the Israeli military.
In a statement released Monday, the day after the cease-fire in Gaza went into effect, Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, pretended the Jenin raid by saying that Israel “must be ready for significant counterterrorism operations” in the West Bank in the upcoming days “to pre-empt and apprehend the terrorists before they reach our civilians.” On Tuesday, Mr. Halevi announced his retirement, partly due to the military’s inability to defend Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
The West Bank is home to some 2.7 million Palestinians and about half a million settlers. The Jewish settlements are unlawful in the eyes of the Palestinians and a large portion of the world, who have long envisioned the area as part of an independent Palestinian state in the future, alongside Israel.
ng from Jerusalem and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad from Haifa, Israel.
