Israel has deployed tanks into the occupied West Bank and ordered its navy to arrange for an “prolonged keep” to combat Palestinian armed teams within the space’s refugee camps.
Sunday’s transfer comes amongst an growth of navy operations which have expelled an estimated 40,000 folks from their houses within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution over the previous month, since a ceasefire paused preventing in Gaza.
More and more strident calls by Israeli hardliners for full annexation of Palestinian territories and a proposal by United States President Donald Trump to expel everybody who lives in Gaza have stoked fears of a brand new Nakba.
Right here’s the whole lot you’ll want to know concerning the latest escalation within the West Financial institution and what it means:
What precisely did Israel do within the occupied West Financial institution?
Israel deployed three tanks into the Jenin refugee camp, the primary such deployment within the occupied West Financial institution since 2002, when Israel launched a bloody crackdown on a Palestinian rebellion often called the second Intifada, which lasted till 2005.
Israel started its assault on January 21 and has moved past Jenin and its camp southwards to Qabatiya and westwards to Burqin, and eastwards out of Tulkarem to Nur Shams refugee camp.
It has additionally raided additional south within the West Financial institution, hitting Kobar and Silwad north of Ramallah, the Beitunia neighbourhood of Ramallah, and Hebron.
Because it conducts its raids, the Israeli military can be expelling folks, destroying roads, imposing curfews for days on finish, blocking entry factors to cities, arresting folks and commandeering houses for navy use.
Is that authorized?
No, it isn’t authorized.
The Worldwide Court docket of Justice said in July that “governments have obligations to make sure that Israel brings the unlawful occupation to a right away finish”.
The United Nations Normal Meeting in September adopted a resolution calling on Israel to finish its unlawful occupation of Palestine inside a yr.
Below the Oslo Accords signed within the early Nineteen Nineties, Israel controls massive elements of the West Financial institution, whereas the Palestinian Authority administers others, an association meant as a precursor to a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Because the occupying energy, Israel is obliged beneath worldwide legislation to make sure the safety of Palestinians, the availability of fundamental providers, and the respect of human rights.
What’s the significance of Israel utilizing tanks?
Israel recurrently raids the West Financial institution however usually quickly withdraws its forces.
Using heavy tanks, on prime of the same old armoured personnel carriers, alerts how intensely the navy is aiming to suppress Palestinian armed teams.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, talking at a navy ceremony on Sunday, mentioned the deployment confirmed that “we’re preventing terror with all means, in all places”.
The Palestinian Ministry of International Affairs and Expatriates mentioned the transfer was a continuation of Israel’s “genocide, displacement and annexation”.
Why now? What does Israel need?
Netanyahu has been beneath strain from far-right governing companions to crack down on armed resistance within the West Financial institution whereas preventing in Gaza and Lebanon is on maintain.
His announcement that Israel was “coming into terrorist strongholds, flattening total streets that terrorists use, and their houses” additionally got here after a sequence of bus explosions close to Tel Aviv on Thursday evening. There have been no casualties reported and no teams claimed duty.
Palestinians view the growth of raids as a part of a broader effort to cement Israeli management over the West Financial institution, the place three million Palestinians dwell.
Israeli media quoted sources near the prime minister saying that the military intends to create massive corridors in Tulkarem and Jenin – just like the so-called Netzarim Hall in Gaza – for the motion of its forces and heavy tools.
Is Israel expelling folks from their houses once more?
About 40,000 Palestinians have fled the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams and Farea, which “are actually empty of residents”.
It isn’t clear how lengthy folks might be prevented from returning to their houses.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz mentioned troops will stay in elements of the territory for a yr and that the tens of hundreds of Palestinians who had been pressured out won’t be able to return.
“We won’t permit the return of residents, and we won’t permit terrorism to return and develop,” he mentioned.
The place will displaced folks go?
No plan has been put in place by Israeli or Palestinian authorities to deal with the displaced, who’re residing in dire situations in makeshift lodging.
Israeli advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) mentioned some 500 folks expelled from Tulkarem and Nur Shams discovered short-term shelter in al-Labad, east of Tulkarem, tenting out within the basements of mosques, occasion halls, and group centres.
Others took refuge in close by villages together with Ezbat al-Jarad, Bal’a, Attil, Bizzariya, and Jarushia, PHR mentioned.
ظروف قاسية يعيشها النازحون من مخيم طولكرم في ظل البرد والشتاء وعدوان المستمر. pic.twitter.com/JpGN0JUOsj
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) February 24, 2025
Translation: Folks displaced from Tulkarem camp dwell in harsh situations amid the chilly and the continuing aggression.
Is there any assist for many who have been expelled?
Israel has pressured the principle supplier of assist to Palestinians – the UN Aid and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) – to shut its headquarters in Jerusalem. On Sunday, Katz ordered the UNRWA to halt exercise within the West Financial institution camps.
Israel accuses UNRWA of supporting armed teams and handed a law on January 30 banning it from working in Israel.
PHR mentioned there was a dire scarcity of meals, energy, and medical provides, including that the Israeli military is “obstructing Pink Crescent automobiles and humanitarian providers, delaying their potential to supply first assist or transport sufferers for … therapy”.
Will this impression the ceasefire in Gaza?
The truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza already seems tenuous and assaults within the West Financial institution may tip the stability.
Hamas official Basem Naim instructed Al Jazeera that Hamas condemned the Israeli raids and noticed them as Netanyahu “deliberately sabotaging the deal” and setting the stage for renewed warfare.
Netanyahu on Sunday mentioned the navy elevated its “operational readiness” round Gaza and was “able to return to intense preventing at any second”.
