Israeli security forces and settler groups have carried out attacks against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on Sunday.
Settler attacks erupted almost immediately after the ceasefire began, with members of the Israeli far-right apparently targeting some of the villages where freed Palestinian women and children were living. Other 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 adjacent Jenin refugee camp.
The military assault comes after a week-long raid by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces on the Jenin refugee camp, where they targeted local Palestinian fighters in what they described as an attempt to restore law and order, but which many Palestinians view as an attempt to restore law and order. repression against independent Palestinian armed groups resisting the Israeli occupation.
How many people were killed?
Israeli army attacks in Jenin killed 12 people – 10 in raids in Jenin governorate on Tuesday and two on Wednesday evening.
It remains unclear exactly how many of those killed Tuesday were civilians, but an AP statement said Israeli forces “opened fire on civilians and security forces, injuring several civilians and a number of security personnel. The AP added that at least 35 people were injured.
The deaths occurred Wednesday in Burqin, a town just west of the city of Jenin. The Palestinian news network Al Quds Today reported that Muhammad Abu al-Asaad and Qutaiba al-Shalabi were killed in “an armed clash with (Israeli) occupying forces.” Hamas’ military wing said the two men were members of Hamas, although the Israeli military said they were affiliated with 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 occur?
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, the six villages were identified as housing women and children released by the Israeli government as part of the ceasefire.
In the town of Jenin, the army surrounded the public hospital and nearby refugee camp, reportedly ordering the evacuation of hundreds of people. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the Jenin operation as a “change in… 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 (PRCS) said the Israeli army is preventing it from reaching the wounded and the bodies of the dead.
Dozens of checkpoints and military barriers have been erected across the West Bank, causing traffic jams for civilians that last between six and eight hours.
Has Jenin ever been targeted?
It is.
Israel has long accused Iran of supplying weapons to armed groups in Jenin and, more specifically, to its refugee camp. Jenin has long been a hotbed of Palestinian resistance, and the growth of an independent armed group, the Jenin Brigades, is of particular concern to Israel.
In December, the PA launched what was seen as the largest and most violent confrontation with armed groups in the West Bank since its expulsion from Gaza by Hamas in 2007.
Seen by many analysts as positioning itself as the natural administrator of post-war Gaza, the Palestinian Authority has been accused of replicating tactics deployed by Israeli forces in past attacks on Jenin and elsewhere: encircling the camp with armored personnel carriers, shooting indiscriminately at civilians, summarily arresting and mistreating young men, and cutting off water and electricity supplies to civilians inside.
Before the PA attack, the Israeli army launched numerous attacks on Jenin. Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israel during one of these raids in May 2022.
Israel targeted Jenin in July 2023, before the outbreak of the Gaza war. During this attack, the Israeli army killed 12 people and injured around 100, which constitutes one of the greatest losses of human life since the infamous military operation of 2002, during the Second Intifada. Fifty-two Palestinians, half of whom were civilians, and 23 of the attacking Israeli soldiers were killed during this assault.
Both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing war crimes during the 2002 attack.
Does this latest violence concern the ceasefire in Gaza?
Yes and no.
While most of the Israeli army was busy in Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli settlers launched the most violent year of attacks on record in the West Bank.
“The ceasefire was not enough for the Israelis,” Murad Jadallah of the rights group Al-Haq said from Ramallah in the West Bank. “The hostage deal does not look like the victory they were promised,” he added, suggesting that the consequences of the apparent disappointment over the deaths of more than 47,000 people were now playing out in West Bank and Jenin.
Overall, according to statistics from 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 ceasefire looks like,” Shai Parness, of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, told Tel Aviv Tribune. “Since Israel and Hamas announced a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an agreement on the release of hostages and prisoners, Israel has intensified its violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. »
Parness added: “Far from holding its fire against the Palestinians, Israel’s actions demonstrate that it has no intention of doing so. Instead, it is content to shift its attention from Gaza to other areas it controls in the West Bank. »
What are Israel’s plans for the West Bank?
Factors such as the far-right composition of the Israeli government and the coming to power of US President Donald Trump’s largely pro-Israeli administration portend difficult times ahead for the West Bank.
While Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, provided unequivocal support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which has so far killed 47,283 people, his administration has expressed some concerns about the rampant violence carried out by the settlers in the West Bank, which the Biden administration saw as having the potential to destabilize the region.
But Trump’s lifting of the Biden administration’s sanctions on settlers offered a potential first glimpse of what many on the Israeli far right had been hoping for: a more lenient U.S. policy toward settler ambitions in the West Bank.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu found himself facing a right-wing rebellion, with ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir resigning from Netanyahu’s coalition cabinet over the ceasefire deal . Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who made no secret of his ambition to annex the West Bank, remained in the government, but promised to resign if the ceasefire in Gaza resulted in 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 set aside Israeli civil administration and have the West Bank administered exclusively by settlers,” Jadallah added, detailing his vision for the first steps toward Israel’s full annexation of the West Bank.
Evidence of this new approach to the West Bank and its settlers was already becoming evident before the ceasefire and the Trump presidency.
On Friday, Katz announced that all remaining settlers in administrative detention, a procedure allowing individuals to be detained indefinitely without charge, would be released. Administrative detention was widely used for Palestinian detainees, although it had previously been applied to some Israelis.
Regarding the release of the settlers, Katz wrote in a statement that it was “better for the families of Jewish settlers to be happy than the families of the freed terrorists,” referring to the Palestinian women and children freed by Israel on Sunday in the framework of the ceasefire agreement. .
