Jewish extremists burned buildings and vehicles in raids on Palestinian villages in the West Bank late Monday, Palestinian officials and the Israeli military said.
CreditCredit...Jaafar Ashtiyeh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Israel Embarks on an ‘Extensive’ Military Operation in the West Bank

The announcement came shortly after President Trump rescinded Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settlers and Jewish extremists raided Palestinian villages in protest against the cease-fire in Gaza.

by · NY Times

Gaza Cease-Fire 

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Israeli security forces on Tuesday embarked on a military operation in Jenin, a Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as Israel turned its focus to an area seen as a hotbed of militancy just days after a temporary cease-fire took hold in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement that the operation, the latest in a string of West Bank raids over the past year, was aimed at “eradicating terrorism” and would be “extensive and significant.” The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry reported that eight people had been killed and at least 35 injured during the first hours of the operation.

For Mr. Netanyahu, the operation in the West Bank could serve as a distraction from Gaza, where Hamas gunmen paraded through the streets even before the cease-fire started on Sunday, a show of force signaling that it had survived the 15-month war despite Mr. Netanyahu’s vows to destroy it.

But with its strength severely diminished in Gaza, Hamas has intensified its efforts to arm militants in the West Bank to open another front against Israel, analysts said, making an Israeli offensive there almost inevitable.

The Jenin operation comes amid sharply rising tensions in the West Bank, as the militants have grown in power and settler violence against Palestinian civilians has soared.

On Monday, President Trump rescinded sanctions imposed by the Biden administration last year on dozens of far-right Israeli individuals and settler groups accused of violence against Palestinians and the seizure or destruction of Palestinian property.

The move came shortly after Mr. Trump took office, even as Jewish extremists raided several Palestinian villages, setting fire to vehicles and properties, according to Palestinian officials and the Israeli military.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited control over parts of the West Bank and is a rival of Hamas, has been carrying out its own operation against armed militants in Jenin in recent weeks after largely leaving security in the area to Israel. Deadly Israeli raids and drone strikes in the northern West Bank over the past year have chewed up streets and left many Palestinian civilians in fear.

Residents and witnesses in Jenin said on Tuesday that a local private hospital, Al-Amal, was surrounded by Israeli forces and had come under fire.

“It’s as if they came to us straight from Gaza with large vehicles, aggressive gunfire and drones,” said Kamila Mahmoud, 22, a resident of Jenin, in a telephone interview.

Residents said that Palestinian Authority security officers and medics were among the injured. Brig. Gen. Anwar Rajab, the spokesman for the Authority’s security forces, said one Palestinian officer was killed.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions about the accounts.

Presaging the raid in Jenin, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Israel’s military chief, said in a statement on Monday, the day after the cease-fire in Gaza came into effect, that Israel “must be ready for significant counterterrorism operations” in the West Bank in the coming days “to pre-empt and apprehend the terrorists before they reach our civilians.” Mr. Halevi announced his resignation on Tuesday, citing in part the military’s failure to protect Israel from the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault that prompted the Gaza war.

Nearly half a million settlers and roughly 2.7 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. The Palestinians, and much of the world, have long envisioned the territory as part of a future independent Palestinian state, alongside Israel, and consider the Jewish settlements to be illegal.

Though Mr. Trump has sent mixed signals, his administration is expected to be staunchly pro-Israel. Some settler leaders have nurtured close ties over the years with Trump associates like Mike Huckabee, Mr. Trump’s pick as the next ambassador.

Hard-line members of Israel’s right-wing government had been requesting the removal of the Biden administration sanctions, one of a long list of executive orders that Mr. Trump signed immediately after his inauguration. Palestinian officials strongly criticized the move, saying it was likely to encourage further violence.

The cancellation coincided with a second consecutive night of violence in the West Bank as extremist settlers protested the cease-fire. Yisrael Ganz, the leader of an umbrella council representing all the settlements, welcomed Mr. Trump’s decision but said he condemned all violence, even if it was perpetrated by a “handful” of settlers.

Far-right members of Mr. Netanyahu’s government oppose the cease-fire, the first phase of which calls for a six-week truce and the incremental exchange of 33 hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Pressure from Mr. Trump and his envoy, Steve Witkoff, was instrumental in helping seal the deal between Israel and Hamas, as were Biden administration officials and other mediators. Mr. Trump had warned that there would be “all hell to pay” if Israeli hostages were not released by his inauguration.

But asked on Monday if he thought the cease-fire in Gaza would hold, Mr. Trump said that he was “not confident” and signaled a lack of interest in the conflict. “That’s not our war,” he said. “It’s their war.”

“But I think they’re very weakened on the other side,” he added, apparently referring to Hamas.

Hamas has become increasingly isolated with its allies decimated in Lebanon, toppled in Syria and weakened in Iran. Seeking to ignite another front against Israel, Hamas issued a statement on Tuesday calling on the Palestinian masses to mobilize and confront the Israeli forces in the West Bank.

“That’s the only front where they see a potential,” said Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Noting that Israel had already raided Jenin more than a dozen times over the past year, Mr. Yaari said that Israel had no choice but to mount a large-scale operation there because the Palestinian Authority’s efforts appeared to be failing. Hamas was supplying the West Bank gunmen with funds and more sophisticated weapons, and attacks against Israel were intensifying, he noted.

General Rajab, the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, said the Israeli raids were “aimed at undermining the security campaign being conducted by the Palestinian Authority” and “intentionally sabotaging Palestinian efforts to enforce law and order” by creating chaos.

Settler extremists have also been trying to destabilize the West Bank and said they would try to block Palestinian prisoners released under the terms of the Gaza cease-fire deal from returning to their homes. Israeli security chiefs have labeled the settler attacks on Palestinians as Jewish terrorism.

One of the Palestinian towns that came under settler attack on Monday was Al-Funduq, in the northern West Bank, where Palestinian gunmen who are believed to have come from another town shot at a civilian bus and cars, killing three Israelis earlier this month.

Louay Tayem, the mayor of Al-Funduq, said that dozens of Israeli settlers began raiding the village, as well as neighboring Jinsafut, at around 9:15 p.m. on Monday and that the assault continued for roughly three hours before the settlers were finally dispersed by Israeli security forces. They smashed car windows, torched a plant nursery and two bulldozers, and attempted to set a house on fire, he said in a phone interview.

Two Israeli men were shot and seriously wounded during one of the assaults on Monday, according to Israel’s emergency services, apparently by Israeli security forces who came under attack. The Israeli authorities said they were investigating.

Aaron Boxerman and Myra Noveck contributed reporting from Jerusalem and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad from Haifa, Israel.