Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that troops would remain “for the coming year” in parts of the occupied West Bank where they have launched a weekslong offensive and would prevent tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians from returning.
Israel has been carrying out deadly assault on the northern West Bank since 21 January – two days after the ceasefire that paused Israel’s war on Gaza took hold – and then expanded it to include other nearby areas.Â
The raids appear to be part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule. The raids have caused widespread destruction, displaced tens of thousands of people and killed dozens of others, including children.
Katz said he had instructed the military to prepare to remain in some of the West Bank’s urban refugee camps, from where he said some 40,000 Palestinians had fled – a figure confirmed by the United Nations – leaving the areas “emptied of residents.”
He said in a statement he had ordered the military to “prepare for an extended stay in the camps that were cleared for the coming year and to not allow the return of residents or for terror to grow again.” It was not clear for how long Palestinians would be prevented from returning.
The military said it was expanding the raid in the West Bank to other areas and, in a major escalation, was sending tanks to Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel’s occupation.
Three tanks, still in Israeli territory, could be seen Sunday from an area near Jenin. It was the first time Israel was sending tanks to the territory since 2002, during the Palestinian Second Intifada against Israel.
The refugee camps are home to descendants of Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes after being ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias when Israel was created in 1948, in an event known as the Nakba.
Netanyahu under pressure to crack down on the West Bank
Under interim peace agreements from the early 1990s, Israel maintains control of over 60% of the West Bank – known as Area C, while the Palestinian Authority administers Area A, while Area B is under mixed control. Israel regularly sends troops into Palestinian zones however.
The UN says the current operation is the longest since the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s, known as the Second Intifada.
Israel stepped us its attacks on the West Bank in October 2023, when the Gaza War broke out.
Now with fighting in Gaza and in Lebanon on hold, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, has been under pressure from his far-right governing partners to increase attacks.
More than 800 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the war in Gaza erupted on 7 October 2023.Â
In the most recent attack in Nour Shams refugee camp, a pregnant Palestinian woman was killed. On Friday, Israel killed two children during separate incidents in the territory.
Israeli settlers have also carried out repeated rampages throughout Palestinian areas in the territory.
Israel delays release of Palestinian prisoners
The intensifying raids come at a sensitive time, as the truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza holds yet remains tenuous.
Israel said it was delaying the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners until it gets assurances that Hamas stops what Israel says are “humiliating” handovers of hostages being freed. Hamas called the decision a “deliberate attempt to disrupt the agreement”.
The sides do not yet appear to have begun negotiations on extending the ceasefire into Phase Two, and its collapse could lead to renewed fighting in war-torn Gaza, which has seen Israel kill over 61,000 people when including the tens of thousands believed to be under rubble.
Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank east Jerusalem since the 1967 Middle East war.
