Israeli forces and security forces have carried out attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire on Sunday.
The attacks on the occupiers took place almost immediately after the end, with right-wing members of Israel reportedly targeting some villages where Palestinian women and child prisoners who had been released had homes. Some Palestinian homes appear to have been targeted at random.
Separately, the Israeli army launched an operation, called “Iron Wall”, in the city of Jenin and the nearby camp of Jenin.
The military attack comes after a attacks for weeks and the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces in the Jenin refugee camp, where they targeted Palestinian fighters in what they described as an attempt to restore law and order, but which many Palestinians see as a violation of the Palestinian Authority's armed forces they refuse to invade Israel. .
How many people have been killed?
Israeli military attack in Jenin kills 12 – 10 people were killed in an attack on Jenin on Tuesday and two on Wednesday night.
It is not yet clear how many of those killed on Tuesday were civilians, but a PA statement said that Israeli forces “opened fire on civilians and security forces, injuring many civilians and several security personnel”. The PA added that at least 35 people were injured.
The deaths occurred on Wednesday in Burqin, a town west of Jenin. The Palestinian newspaper Al Quds Today reported that Muhammad Abu al-Asaad and Qutaiba al-Shalabi were killed in “battles against Israeli forces”. The Hamas military group said the two men were members of Hamas, although the Israeli military said they were affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Meanwhile, at least 21 Palestinians have been injured in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the ceasefire began on Sunday.
Where is the violence taking place?
The violence of the migrants seems to have focused only on six villages: Sinjil, Turmus Aya, Ein Siniya and al-Lubban Ashaqiya (near Ramallah) and Funduq and Jinsafut, (both near Nablus). According to the Guardian, six villages were identified as homes for women and children who were released by the Israeli government as part of the ceasefire.
In the city of Jenin, soldiers have surrounded a government-run hospital and a nearby refugee camp, reportedly ordering hundreds to leave. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described what happened in Jenin as a “a change in … defense strategy”. He said the effort was part of Israel's military plan in the occupied West Bank and was “the first lesson from the repeated attacks on Gaza”.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that the arrival of the injured and the bodies of the dead by the Israeli army is prohibited.
Many military checkpoints and barriers were launched across the West Bank, resulting in civilian blockades of six to eight hours.
Has Jenin been targeted before?
It has.
Israel said for a long time he accused Iran of sending weapons to the armed forces in Jenin and, in particular, his refugee camp. Jenin has long been opposed to Palestine, and the growth of an independent group, the Jenin Brigades, has had a major impact on Israel.
In December, the PA launched what was described as the largest and most violent war with armed forces in the West Bank since the ousting of Gaza by Hamas in 2007.
It is thought by many experts that he was positioning itself as Gaza's environmental steward after the warThe PA was accused of repeating the tactics used by the Israeli army in fighting in Jenin and elsewhere: surrounding the camp with armed men, shooting civilians indiscriminately, arresting and torturing young men, and cutting off water and electricity to civilians inside.
Before the PA attack, there were many attacks on Jenin by the Israeli army. Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh he was killed by Israel in one such attackin May 2022.
Israel attacked Jenin in July 2023, before the war in Gaza. During that attack, the Israeli army killed 12 people and wounded around 100, one of the highest losses of life since the war in 2002, during the second Intifada. Seventy Palestinianshalf of the civilians, and 23 of the attacking Israeli soldiers were killed during the attack.
Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have both criticized Israel for military atrocities during the 2002 attack.
Is this recent violence related to the end of the war in Gaza?
Yes and no.
Despite the Israeli military's presence in Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli refugees have sparked the most violent year in the West Bank.
“The ceasefire was not enough for the Israelis,” Murad Jadallah of the Al-Haq rights group said in Ramallah in the West Bank. “The hostage deal did not feel like the victory that was promised,” he added, pointing to the effects of the frustration that followed the deaths of more than 47,000 people now being played out in the West Bank and in Jenin.
Overall, according to statistics from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)Israeli settlers staged at least 1,860 protests between October 7, 2023 – the day Hamas attacks Israel – and December 31, 2024.
“This does not look like a ceasefire,” Shai Parness of the Israeli rights group B'Tselem told Al Jazeera. “Since Israel and Hamas announced a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a prisoner release agreement, Israel has escalated its violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.”
Parness added: “Far from inflaming the Palestinian people, what Israel is doing shows that it has no such intention. Instead, it is simply shifting its focus from Gaza to other areas it controls in the West Bank.”
What does Israel want in the West Bank?
Factors including the right wing of the Israeli government and the coming of power of the Israeli administration of the United States President Donald Trump are leading to difficult times in the West Bank.
While President Trump, Joe Biden, has given concrete support for Israel's war in Gaza, which. so far they have killed 47,283 peopleAnother concern was expressed by his administration because of the violence committed by residents of the West Bank, which Biden officials felt could destabilize the region.
But Trump's easing of the sanctions imposed on the occupiers by the Biden administration provided an early glimpse of what many on the Israeli right are hoping for – a firm US policy on West Bank ambitions.
Within Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu found himself facing attacks from the right, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir resigning from Netanyahu's coalition cabinet over the ceasefire agreement. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has made no secret of his desire for the annexation of the West Bank, remained in government, but promised to resign if the Gaza truce was completed.
“Smotrich has more power and strength than before,” Jadallah said in talks to keep Smotrich.
“Ultimately they want to give up the administration of the Israeli government and make the West Bank under the control of the residents,” Jadallah added, explaining how he started the West Bank's complete occupation by Israel.
Evidence of this new approach to the West Bank and its occupants has already been seen in the end and the Trump administration.
On Friday, Mr. Katz announced that all those who had served time in prison, a method of holding people indefinitely without trial, would be released. Guard detention is mostly used for Palestinian prisoners, although it has also been used for some Israelis.
In freeing the settlers, Katz wrote in a statement that “it was better for the families of the Jewish settlers to be happy than for the families of the freed terrorists”, referring to the Palestinian women and children who were freed by Israel on Sunday as part of the ceasefire agreement. .