TUBAS, Palestine: Israel’s military on Wednesday launched a new operation in the illegally occupied West Bank, where a local governor said that Israeli forces had raided several towns and a Palestinian refugee camp.
The Israeli military and internal security service said in a joint statement that they had begun a broad operation in the north of the Palestinian territory.
They said further details on the operation would follow at a later stage.
The Israeli army confirmed to AFP that it was a new operation, and not part of the one launched in January 2025, dubbed “Iron Wall”, which primarily targeted Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank.
Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank since 1967.
The operation, which began overnight, was taking place in predominantly agricultural Tubas, the northeasternmost of the 11 governorates in the West Bank.
Ahmed al-Asaad, governor of the Tubas region, quoted by AFP, said: “This is the first time that the entire governorate is included — the whole governorate is now under Israeli army operations.”
Asaad said Israeli forces raided the towns of Tammun and Tayasir, and the Al-Faraa Palestinian refugee camp.
“The army has closed the city entrances with earth mounds, so there is no movement at all,” he added.
Israeli army targeting residential areas
He said that “an Apache helicopter” was involved in the operation, and claimed it had fired in the direction of residential areas.
“This is a political operation, not a security one,” he said.
Israeli soldiers were walking around inside Tubas city, with a few armoured patrol vehicles (APVs) driving through and a surveillance aerial vehicle buzzing overhead, AFP reported. Most shops were closed.
The road entrance to nearby Tammun had been closed off by a military vehicle.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its teams in the governorate had treated 10 injured people, four of whom had to be transferred to the hospital.
It added that some of its teams were “facing obstruction in transporting patients in the city of Tubas and the town of Tammun since dawn”, and were still responding to calls for help following the raids.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad condemned the Israeli operation.
Hamas said in a statement that it was part of a policy “aimed at crushing any Palestinian presence in order to achieve complete control over the West Bank”.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since October 2023, when Israel launched its relentless bombardment campaign in Gaza, and has not ceased despite the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas coming into effect last month.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.
