An Israeli military operation in a refugee camp built in the occupied West Bank killed at least seven people on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said, as the Israel Defense Forces announced a new “large-scale” offensive in the area for a third day of the month a ceasefire in the smaller Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank, which, unlike Gaza, has long been militarily occupied by Israel and is not controlled by Hamas, reported the death toll from the new IDF operation.
In a statement released by his office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the IDF and police had “launched a large-scale and significant military operation to eradicate terrorism in Jenin.”
JAAFAR Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty
Naming Operation Iron Wall, Netanyahu called it “another step toward achieving our goal of strengthening security” in the West Bank and acting “methodically and decisively against the Iranian axis wherever it directs its weapons.”
During the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Jenin was the center of Israeli incursions into the occupied territory. The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, launched its own raid into the area late last year.
Violence flared in the West Bank during the Gaza war, when Israel said it was acting to destroy Iranian-backed militants. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that more than 800 people have been killed by Israeli raids in the West Bank since the start of the war following Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. Several Israelis were also killed recently during Palestinian attacks.
The IDF launched its new operation hours after President Trump rescinded Biden-era executive orders that authorized US sanctions against people who undermine the peace in the occupied West Bank, mainly against Israeli settlers.
The Biden administration used the order to impose several sanctions on extremist settlers accused of violence against Palestinians living in the West Bank.
Israeli settlements and smaller outposts in the West Bank are illegal under international law. The Supreme Court of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, managed last summer that Israel must halt settlement activity and end what it called an “illegal” occupation – a ruling that had no binding legal force and was condemned by the Israeli government.
Settlers have celebrated the arrival of the Trump administration, suggesting it will take a more lenient approach to illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory.
During his first term, Mr. Trump took unprecedented steps to support Israel's territorial claims, including recognizing Jerusalem as its capital and the transfer of the US embassy there, and the recognition of Israel annexation of the Golan Heights.
After Mr. Trump's re-election In November, Israel's far-right finance minister suggested that the country would seek to annex the occupied West Bank in 2025.
Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of Israel's far-right Religious Zionist Party, said at the time that he believed Israel could work with a second Trump administration to advance the annexation of the West Bank.
“I am convinced that we will be able to work closely with President-elect Trump and all members of the incoming administration, promote the shared values and interests of the two countries, strengthen the strength and security of the State of Israel, to expand the circle of peace and stability in the Middle East from strength and faith and based on recognition of the indisputable historical belonging of the entire Land of Israel to the people of Israel,” he said in a message on social networks.
The settlements, seen as an obstacle to a potential two-state solution, a long-standing US-backed policy of creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel, because the more Israeli Jews living in the occupied territory, the less it seems that Israel would ever give up control of the land to become part of a Palestinian state.