What is the military attack from Jenin from Jenin Israel to Jenin West Bank? | Israel-Palestine Conflict News
Israeli security forces and settlers have been involved in attacks against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank since the Israel-Hamas crackdown on Sunday.
Settler attacks erupted almost immediately after the ceasefire began, with far-right Israelis targeting some villages where freed Palestinian women and child captives had homes. Other Palestinian homes appear to have been randomly targeted.
Separately, the Israeli army launched an operation, dubbed “Iron Wall”, in the city of Jenin and the neighboring Jenin refugee camp.
The military attack comes after a weeks of raids by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces to the Jenin refugee camp, where he targeted local Palestinian fighters in what he described as an attempt to restore law and order, but which many Palestinians see as a crackdown on independent Palestinian armed groups resisting Israeli occupation.
How many people were killed?
Attacks by the Israeli army in Jenin killed 12 people – 10 during raids on the Jenin Governorate on Tuesday and two on Wednesday night.
It is still unclear how many civilians were killed on Tuesday, but a PA statement said Israeli forces “opened fire on civilians and security forces, resulting in injuries to several civilians and numerous security personnel.” The PA added that at least 35 people were wounded.
Wednesday’s death occurred in Burqin, a town just west of the city of Jenin. The Palestinian Al Quds News Network reported today that Muhammad Abu al-Asaad and Qutaiba al-Shalabi were killed in “an armed conflict with [Israeli] occupying forces”. Hamas’s armed wing 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 does the violence take place?
Settler violence appears to be concentrated in at least 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 have been identified as the homes of women and children released by the Israeli government as part of the ceasefire.
In the city of Jenin, the military surrounded a government-run hospital and a nearby refugee camp, reportedly ordering the evacuation of hundreds. Israeli Defense Minister Izrael Katz described the operation in Jenin as “Change to … security strategy”. He said the effort was part of Israel’s military plan for the occupied West Bank and was “the first lesson in the method of repeated raids in Gaza.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRC) said the Israeli army was preventing it from reaching the wounded and the bodies of the dead.
Dozens of military checkpoints and obstacles were deployed across the West Bank, leading to return attacks for civilians lasting between six and eight hours.
Has Jenin been targeted before?
There is.
Israel has Iran has long been accused of funneling weapons to armed groups in Jenin And, specifically, his refugee camp. Jenin has long been a hotbed of Palestinian resistance, and the growth of an independent armed group, the Jenin Brigades, has targeted Israel in particular.
In December, the PA launched what was reported as the largest and most violent confrontation with armed groups in the West Bank since its ouster from Gaza by Hamas in 2007.
Many analysts thought they were positioning himself as the natural administrator of post-war GazaThe PA has been accused of repeating tactics deployed by Israeli forces in past attacks on Jenin and elsewhere: surrounding the camp with armored personnel carriers, indiscriminately shooting civilians, summarily detaining and abusing young men, and cutting off water and electricity supplies to civilians inside.
Before the attack by the PA, the Israeli army made numerous attacks on Jenin. Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh He killed Israel in one such raidin May 2022.
Israel targeted Jenin in July 2023, before the Gaza war broke out. During that attack, the Israeli army killed 12 people and wounded around 100, one of the most significant losses of life since the infamous military operation in 2002, during the second Intifada. Fifty-two PalestiniansHalf of them civilians and 23 attackers of Israeli soldiers were killed during that attack.
Amnesty and Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing war crimes during the 2002 attack.
Is this the latest violence over the Gaza cutoff?
Yes and no.
While most of the Israeli army was occupied in Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli settlers launched the most violent year of attacks on record in the West Bank.
“Consent was not enough for the Israelis,” said Murad Jadallah of the Ramallah-based rights group Al-Haq in the West Bank. “The hostage deal did not feel like the victory that was promised to them,” he added, suggesting that the fallout from the apparent disappointment after the deaths of more than 47,000 people was now being played out in the West Bank and in Jenin.
Overall, according to Statistics of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)Israeli settlers carried out at least 1,860 attacks between October 7, 2023—the day of the Hamas-led attack on Israel—and December 31, 2024.
“This is not what a truce looks like,” Shai Paness of the Israeli rights group B’tselem told Al Jazeera. “Since Israel and Hamas announced a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an agreement to release hostages and prisoners, Israel has stepped up its violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.”
Parness added: “Far from holding fire against the Palestinians, Israel’s actions show it has no intention of doing so. Instead, it is merely shifting its focus from Gaza to other areas it controls in the West Bank.”
What are Israel’s plans for the West Bank?
Factors including the far-right makeup of Israel’s government and the coming to power of the overwhelmingly pro-Israel administration of United States President Donald Trump augur hard times for the West Bank.
While Trump’s predecessor President Joe Biden provided unequivocal support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which 47,283 people have been killed so farSome concern has been expressed by his administration about the unrestrained violence it has unleashed on settlers in the West Bank, which the Biden administration saw as having the potential to destabilize the region.
But Trump’s lifting of sanctions imposed on settlers by the Biden administration offered a potential early glimpse of what many on Israel’s far-right had hoped for—more lenient American policy toward settler ambitions for the West Bank.
Inside Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu found himself facing a rebellion from the right, with ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir resigning from Netanyahu’s coalition cabinet over the ceasefire deal. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has made no secret of his ambition to see the West Bank annexed, remained in the government but promised to resign if the Gaza ceasefire led to an end to the war.
“Smotrich has more power and influence than ever before,” Jadallah said of the negotiations to keep Smotrich on board.
“Ultimately, he wants to charge Israel’s civilian administration and have the West Bank governed solely by settlers,” Jadallah added, detailing his view of the early steps toward Israel’s full annexation.
Evidence of this new approach to the West Bank and its settlers has already become visible even before the ceasefire and the Trump presidency.
Katz announced Friday that all remaining immigrants in administrative detention would be released, a process that would jail individuals indefinitely. Administrative detention was mainly used for Palestinian detainees, although it had previously been applied to some Israelis.
Announcing the settlers, Katz wrote in a statement that “it is better for the families of Jewish settlers to be happy than the families of the released terrorists,” referring to the Palestinian women and children released by Israel on Sunday as part of the cease-fire agreement.
