Key points
- Tanks were last deployed in the West Bank in 2002
- Israeli moves “a dangerous escalation of the situation in the West Bank”: Palestinian foreign ministry
- The trucebetween Israel and Hamas in Gaza remains tenuous
ISLAMABAD: Israeli tanks moved into the occupied West Bank on Sunday for the first time in decades in what Palestinian authorities called a “dangerous escalation,” after the defence minister said troops will remain in parts of the territory for a year and tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled cannot return.
According to AP, the agency’s journalists saw several tanks move along unpaved tracks into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel.
According to TRT World, truce pausing Israel’s war on Gaza — which has reportedly killed 48,339 plus Palestinians, a figure revised by officials to 62,000 plus, having added thousands who are missing and now presumed dead — has entered its 37th day.
According to AP, Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out “militancy” amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the northern West Bank on January 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold — and expanded it to nearby areas.
Deadly raids
Palestinians view the deadly raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “increase the intensity of the activity to thwart terrorism” in all refugee camps in the West Bank.
“We will not allow the return of residents, and we will not allow terrorism to return and grow,” he said.
Earlier, Katz said he had instructed the military to prepare for “an extended stay” in some of the West Bank’s urban refugee camps.
We will not allow the return of residents, and we will not allow terrorism to return and grow.” –Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz
The camps are home to descendants of Palestinians who fled during wars with Israel decades ago. It was not clear how long Palestinians would be prevented from returning. Katz said Israeli troops would stay “for the coming year.” Netanyahu said they would stay “as long as needed.”
Tanks were last deployed in the West Bank in 2002.
“Dangerous escalation”
The Palestinian foreign ministry called the Israeli moves “a dangerous escalation of the situation in the West Bank,” and urged the international community to intervene in what it termed Israel’s illegal “aggression.”
“Even if they stay, we will return to the camp at the end,” said Mohamed al-Sadi, one of those displaced from Jenin. “This camp is ours. We have no other place to go.”
With fighting in Gaza and Lebanon on hold, Netanyahu has been under pressure from far-right governing partners to crack down on “militancy” in the West Bank.
The UN says the current Israeli military operation is the longest since the early 2000s.
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Under interim peace agreements from the early 1990s, Israel maintains control over large parts of the West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority administers other areas.
Israel regularly sends troops into Palestinian zones but typically withdraws them after missions.
Israeli settlers also have carried out rampages in Palestinian areas in the territory
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians want all three territories for their future independent state.
Tenuous truce
The truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza remains tenuous.
A week is left in the ceasefire’s first phase, and no negotiations have been reported on the second phase. The truce’s collapse could lead to renewed fighting in Gaza, where Netanyahu says 63 hostages remain, about half of them believed dead, including a soldier captured in 2014.
“We are ready to return to intense fighting at any moment,” Netanyahu said Sunday. The military increased its “operational readiness” around Gaza.
The US special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told CNN he expects the second phase to go forward, adding: “We have to get an extension of phase one and so I’ll be going into the region this week, probably Wednesday, to negotiate that.” He told CBS he will visit Qatar, Egypt, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
But a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud Mardawi, said Sunday the group will not engage in further discussions with Israel through mediators until Israel releases the 620 Palestinian prisoners meant to be freed on Saturday, according to AP.
