Israeli security forces and settler groups have been engaged in attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on Sunday.
Settler attacks began almost immediately after the cease-fire began, with members of Israel’s far-right wing reportedly targeting villages housing freed Palestinian women and child prisoners. Other Palestinian homes appear to have been targeted at random.
In addition, the Israeli army launched an operation called “Iron Wall” in the city of Jenin and the adjacent Jenin refugee camp.
The military raid followed a week-long raid by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces on the Jenin refugee camp, targeting local Palestinian fighters in what it described as efforts to restore order. but which was seen by many Palestinians. Crackdown on independent Palestinian armed groups resisting the Israeli occupation.
How many people were killed?
Israeli forces killed 12 people in Jenin, 10 on Tuesday and two on Wednesday night during raids in Jenin governorate.
It was not yet clear how many civilians were among those killed on Tuesday, but a PA statement said Israeli forces “fired on civilians and security forces, killing several civilians and several security personnel.” Injured”. The PA added that at least 35 people were injured.
The killings took place on Wednesday in Barkin, a town west of the city of Jenin. Palestinian news network Al-Quds Today reported that Muhammad Abu al-Asad and Qutiba al-Shalabi “were killed in an armed clash. [Israeli] The armed wing of Hamas, the Occupying Forces, said the two men were members of Hamas, although the Israeli military says 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 is the violence taking place?
Settler violence appears to be concentrated in at least six villages: Sanjeel, Tarmis Aya, Ain Siniya and Al-Lban Ashqiya (near Ramallah) and Fandoq and Jansfut, (both near Nablus). According to the Guardian, the six villages were identified as the homes of women and children who had been released by the Israeli government as part of a ceasefire.
In the city of Jenin, the army has surrounded a government hospital and a nearby refugee camp and reportedly ordered the evacuation of hundreds of people. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the operation in Jenin 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 from the method of repeated raids in Gaza”.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that it is being prevented from reaching the bodies of the wounded and dead by the Israeli army.
Dozens of military checkpoints and roadblocks have been set up in the West Bank, forcing civilians to queue for six to eight hours.
Has Janine been targeted before?
He has
Israel has long accused Iran of supplying weapons to armed groups in Jenin, particularly its refugee camp. Jenin has long been a hotbed of Palestinian resistance, and the growth of an independent armed group, the Jenin Brigades, has particularly worried Israel.
In December, the PA launched what was described as the largest and most violent conflict with armed groups in the West Bank since Hamas was driven out of Gaza in 2007.
Positioned by many analysts as the natural administrator of post-war Gaza, the PA has been accused of having been deployed by Israeli forces in past attacks on Jenin and elsewhere. The tactics employed were replicated: armored personnel carriers around the camp, indiscriminate firing. Civilians briefly detain and abuse youths, and cut off water and electricity supplies. Ordinary citizens inside
Prior to the PA attack, there had been several attacks on Jenin by the Israeli military. Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akalih was killed by Israel in a similar raid in May 2022.
Israel targeted Jenin in July 2023 before the war in Gaza began. During the attack, Israel’s military killed 12 people and wounded nearly 100, the worst casualties since an infamous military operation in 2002 during the second intifada. Fifty-two Palestinians, half of whom were civilians, and 23 of the attacking Israeli soldiers were killed during the attack.
Both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing war crimes during the 2002 invasion.
Is this latest violence about the Gaza ceasefire?
Yes and no.
While the bulk of the Israeli army occupied Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli settlers launched the most violent attacks on record inside the West Bank.
“The cease-fire was not enough for the Israelis,” Murad Jadullah of the rights group al-Haq said from Ramallah in the West Bank. “The hostage deal has not delivered the victory it was promised,” he added. The results of the apparent desperation are now being played out across the West Bank and in Jenin after more than 47,000 people have been killed, he added.
In total, 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, according to figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). have done
“It doesn’t look like a ceasefire,” Shai Parnis of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem told Al Jazeera. “Since Israel and Hamas announced a temporary cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and an agreement to release hostages and prisoners, Israel has intensified its violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.”
Parnes added: “Far from ceasing its 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.” moving those under his control in the West Bank.
What are Israel’s plans for the West Bank?
The far-right make-up of Israel’s government and the coming to power of United States President Donald Trump’s overwhelmingly pro-Israel administration are signs of difficult times ahead for the West Bank.
While Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, offered unequivocal support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which has so far killed 47,283 people, his administration’s actions on behalf of settlers inside the West Bank Some concern has been expressed over the unbridled violence that the Biden administration has witnessed. Potential to destabilize the region.
But Trump’s lifting of settler sanctions imposed by the Biden administration offered a possible early glimpse of what Israel’s far-right has hoped for — an American response to settler ambitions for the West Bank. More charm than policy.
Within Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself has faced a coup from the right, with ultra-nationalist National Security Minister Atmar Ben Guerre resigning from Netanyahu’s coalition cabinet over the cease-fire agreement. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has made no secret of his ambitions to annex the West Bank, remains in government, but has promised to resign if a Gaza ceasefire leads to an end to the war. .
“Smotrich has more power and influence than ever before,” Jadullah said of the negotiations to keep Smutrich on the board.
“Ultimately he wants to sideline the Israeli civil administration and keep the West Bank exclusively under the administration of the settlers,” Jadullah said of Israel’s initial steps toward full annexation of the West Bank. Explaining the details of the look, he added.
Evidence of this new approach to the West Bank and its settlers was already evident before the ceasefire and the Trump presidency.
On Friday, Katz announced that all remaining settlers held in administrative detention, including those held indefinitely without charge, would be released. Administrative detention has been used mostly for Palestinian detainees, although it was also previously applied to some Israelis.
On freeing the settlers, Katz wrote in a statement that “it is better for the families of the Jewish settlers to be happy than the families of the released terrorists,” one of the ceasefire agreements signed by Israel on Sunday. Referring in part to liberated Palestinian women and children.
