Israeli forces are engaging in an extensive military operation in the West Bank in the wake of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, replicating methods used during the Gaza war.
Just hours after the truce came into effect on 19 January, Israel began erecting new checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank, effectively sealing off most of the entrances and exits of Palestinian governorates.
Only two days after the truce in Gaza took force, with the first Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages freed, Israel announced its ‘Iron Wall’ operation in and around the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, which has so far killed 18 Palestinians.
The Israeli army claims the violent campaign is part of a wider offensive aimed at countering militants in the occupied territory to ensure that “terrorism does not return”, drawing on the repeated warfare tactics utilised in Gaza, including drone attacks and airstrikes.
Jenin camp has long been a major stronghold of Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and more recently youth-led groups such as the Jenin Brigades, and has been a target of deadly Israeli incursions for decades.
So far, dozens have been arrested in the ‘Iron Wall’ operation and up to 15,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes, with some reports indicating that the camp has become almost uninhabitable due to the new Israeli raids and a protracted siege by the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces since early December.
The raid in Jenin is just one front in Israel’s intensified operations in the West Bank. Last week, Israeli forces detained over 70 Palestinians during a raid in the Qalqilya governorate amid a surge of violent settler attacks across the Israeli-occupied territory. This came just a day after 90 Palestinians were released under the Gaza ceasefire deal, sparking concerns that Israel may be detaining other Palestinians to make up for the detainees set free.
The spike in settler rampages and escalation in Israeli military operations, including airstrikes and ground incursions, has left Palestinians in the West Bank terrified that they may endure the same fate as those in Gaza.
“What makes this latest invasion unique is that Israel is perceiving its military campaign as an actual war,” Ramzy Baroud, journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle, told The New Arab, pointing to the use of tactics such as the obliteration of neighbourhoods and the ethnic cleansing of refugee camps.
The military campaign is backed by a political discourse in which top Israeli officials openly describe it as an “act of war” that will “change Israel’s concept of security in the West Bank,” with Defence Minister Yisrael Katz saying the Israeli army could remain in the Jenin refugee camp even once the operation is finished.
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Baroud noted that the operation differs from those in the past, as the PA, instead of assisting Israel under “security coordination”, is now “actively participating” in the suppression of Palestinian resistance.
As part of the campaign, the Israeli army has increased checkpoints, roadblocks, and other barriers throughout the territory, including in East Jerusalem. Since October 2023, over 900 additional military checkpoints and gates had already been set up in the West Bank, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission (WSRC).
These measures further limit Palestinian freedom of movement, fragment and isolate Palestinian communities, and restrict access to essential services. Residents have reported major delays since the Gaza ceasefire started, with vehicles facing huge traffic jams and commuters finding that their journey to work takes significantly longer, if possible at all.
“Why this collective punishment for three million Palestinians living in the West Bank?” Hebron-based Palestinian activist Issa Amro asked while speaking to TNA. He said the Israeli army had imposed a “lockdown” with a significant increase in raids, arrests, and settler violence.
“One way or another, the plan to annex the West Bank and make life harder and harder for Palestinians to reduce their numbers is underway,” the prominent human rights defender added. Since the war on Gaza, the West Bank’s economy has virtually collapsed, with heavy job losses, widespread poverty, and growing dependency on aid.
According to Baroud, the Israeli operation is largely driven by political and psychological motives, as well as a settler colonial logic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, scrambling to keep his coalition intact after defence minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s exit, wants to appease far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich by supporting settlement expansion, annexation, and the displacement of Palestinians.
The move also signals to right-wing supporters that the ceasefire in Gaza is just a “chapter” in Israel’s broader war for its so-called “national security”, the American-Palestinian journalist added.
“Israel has long been keen on annexing the West Bank, the Gaza war has emboldened its political stance,” he said, adding that the Israeli operation is designed to “subdue Palestinian resistance” and prepare for the future annexation of the region.
“Since its inception, Israel has used these policies and practices to dominate, intimidate, and pressure Palestinians to leave,” Lubnah Shomali, advocacy manager of BADIL, a Palestinian human rights organisation dedicated to defending and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees, told TNA.
The Palestinian rights defender maintained that Israel’s ultimate goal has always been “the complete colonisation” of Palestine through the establishment of a system of domination, “with a minimal number of Palestinians”. She underlined how Israel “banks” on land seizures to drive Palestinians out, and expand its settler colonial enterprise.
What’s changed now, according to Shomali, is that Netanyahu’s cabinet has been “very vocal” about the political agenda behind the latest escalation in the Palestinian territory. In particular, she referred to a statement by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich after Trump’s election win, in which he designated 2025 as the target year for extending Israel’s sovereignty over the West Bank.
The human rights advocate anticipates increasingly oppressive measures by the Israeli government against Palestinian areas involved in resistance, citing a carrot-and-stick plan of rewards and punishments initiated by former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, which she said is endorsed by Smotrich.
Under such a plan, Palestinian villages and cities with no history of militancy would be labelled as “green zones,” resulting in an easing of restrictions, whereas those which host Palestinian fighters would be designated “red zones” and face stricter measures.
Violence has soared throughout the West Bank since Israel unleashed its assault on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, with Israel launching airstrikes in the occupied territory for the first time since the Second Intifada. At least 870 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s army and settlers since the Gaza war began, with 152 recorded airstrikes in the West Bank.
Settler violence has also risen to record levels in the last 15 months, with at least 1,860 attacks in the Palestinian territory recorded between 7 October 2023 and 31 December 2024.
However, violence was already on the rise before the outbreak of the war in Gaza, with ramped-up Israeli military raids and rising settler aggression.
This new uptick in violence follows Donald Trump’s lifting of sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on some Israeli settlers implicated in violence against Palestinians.
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“The reversal of sanctions is a green light for settlers to terrorise, attack and kill more Palestinians,” Amro warned.
The return of Trump to the White House has been welcomed by hardline pro-settler Israeli groups who are pushing for expansion of settlement building in the West Bank.
Israel’s deadly West Bank raids are taking place as negotiators move forward with the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Analysts suggest the “Iron Wall” operation provides a distraction from Netanyahu’s failures in Gaza as the occupying Israeli army is gradually withdrawing from several parts of the devastated Palestinian enclave.
In Amro’s view, the Israeli government had long feared a truce deal but was pressured by the US to accept it. To reassert strength they turned their focus to the West Bank, carrying out military raids in Jenin and other areas.
“The ceasefire in Gaza came at our expense. The Israelis turned to the West Bank to compensate for what they lost,” the activist said.
Alessandra Bajec is a freelance journalist currently based in Tunis.
Follow her on Twitter: @AlessandraBajec
