On 25 January 2025, six days after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect, Ali Awad, a resident of the Palestinian village of Tuba in the occupied West Bank south of Hebron, was sitting in his car next to his house when he saw settlers running toward him with a gun and a bottle of gasoline.
Awad fled his jeep and moved his family away from their home. When he looked back, his car was in flames.
This scene is just one of many since the ceasefire in Gaza started, which brought much-needed respite to Palestinians in the besieged strip while a wave of settler and military violence has swept the West Bank.
The day the ceasefire began, masked Israeli settlers – under the army’s protection – tore through villages surrounding Ramallah and Nablus where Palestinian prisoners expected to be released in the deal have homes.
Setting properties ablaze and slinging rocks and Molotov cocktails, the settlers said the riots were in protest of the release of 90 Palestinians from Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli hostages taken during the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023.
In parallel, Israel’s military launched an operation called ‘Iron Wall’ on 21 January 2025 in Jenin and its refugee camp – launching airstrikes and bulldozing civilian infrastructure.
The ongoing assault has expanded to Tulkarm and Tubas and has killed at least 40 Palestinians and displaced more than 40,000 – completely emptying the Jenin refugee camp according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
War on the West Bank
The ‘Iron Wall’ campaign is directly in response to the ceasefire deal. Two days after the agreement was signed, Israel’s security cabinet added the West Bank into its war goals, calling to “[strengthen] defence and security in Judea and Samaria [biblical names of the West Bank], with an emphasis on maintaining the security of movement and settlements”.
“They proclaimed outright that they were going to increase military operations and the intensity and bring in Gaza military tactics into the West Bank, so this was planned,” said Allegra Pacheco, Chief of Party for the West Bank Protection Consortium, formed to prevent the forcible transfer of Palestinians from the West Bank.
Additionally, the ceasefire deal prompted Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz to free all West Bank settlers held under administrative detention, citing the release of Palestinian prisoners through the ceasefire deal as his motivation.
Echoing the cabinet’s updated war goals, Katz said the move was meant, “to convey a clear message of strengthening and encouraging the settlements, which are at the forefront of the struggle against Palestinian terrorism and face growing security challenges”.
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Katz’s decision, along with United States President Donald Trump’s removal of sanctions his predecessor placed on Israeli settlers, has created this Wild West-style settler terror igniting across the West Bank
“That’s a sign that you can do whatever you want, there’s not going to be accountability,” Yehuda Shaul, co-director of Ofek: The Israeli Center for Public Affairs, said of Katz’ decision.
In Masafer Yatta, an area of the South Hebron Hills, previously sanctioned settlers, Yinon Levi and Isaschar Manne, have participated in ongoing attacks against Umm al Kheir, a village in the rural enclave. They’ve harassed residents, prevented shepherds from grazing their livestock, and are now in the middle of establishing an olive grove on Palestinian land – claiming the area belongs to them. In the last week, settlers have bulldozed the area and drilled into the ground.
“They’re emboldened now,” a resident of Umm al Kheir, who wished not to be named over concerns for his safety, told TNA.
“Sanctioning the settlers – it was too late and it was something simple – but it really…did help. Because some settlers care about going to America,” he said. “Once Trump became the president and he lifted all the sanctions, it was like a clue for the settlers that he was okay with [what they’re doing], so just keep going.”
A bargaining chip
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich nearly quit the government over his opposition to the Gaza ceasefire yet remained after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly agreed to a number of demands from Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party, including full Israeli control of Gaza.
“The real minister of defence today is actually not Katz,” Shaul said. “It’s Smotrich when it comes to the West Bank.”
In addition to serving as Israel’s Finance Minister, Smotrich also oversees all civilian affairs in the West Bank.
While both Netanyahu and Smotrich are behind Israel’s assault on the occupied territory, Shaul explains their agendas are different.
“Smotrich obviously wants the West Bank to explode in order to make sure that a permanent ceasefire in Gaza doesn’t happen,” Shaul said. “[But Netanyahu] understands he needs to pay in West Bank currency for the possibility of a final deal in Gaza.”
So as Smotrich is thinking about a return to war, Netanyahu, who’s on trial for corruption, is consumed with keeping his coalition alive to stay in power, and Smotrich is integral to that.
“To keep him in the coalition, Netanyahu has given Smotrich a free hand in the West Bank,” Younes Arar, with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, told TNA.
Yet their interests – whether spurred by ideology or self-preservation – have turned the West Bank into a tinderbox.
“The problem with this crazy reality is that the second you pour gasoline all over the place and start to play with matches, ultimately a fire will start,” Shaul said.
And the price of Netanyahu’s political survival? Palestinian lives.
“This is a bargain,” Arar said. “At the cost of Palestinian blood, at the cost of Palestinian properties, at the cost of Palestinian freedom.”
Jessica Buxbaum is a Jerusalem-based journalist covering Palestine and Israel. Her work has been featured in Middle East Eye, The National, and Gulf News
Follow her on Twitter: @jess_buxbaum
