For the first time since 2002, the Israeli tanks moved to the occupied West Bank, shortly after Israel’s Defense Minister said that the troops would remain “for the coming year” in parts of the Palestinian territory.
Associated Press journalists saw a handful of tank after Jenin, a bastion of the armed struggle against Israel for a long time.
Israel deepens his approach to the Palestinian territory and said that it was determined to coordinate militance in an increase in attacks.
Israel started the broad offensive in the northern West Bank on January 21 – two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza and expanded it to nearby areas.
The Palestinians consider such raids as part of the efforts to consolidate Israeli control over the territory, in which three million Palestinians live with military rule. The fatal raids have caused destruction in urban areas.
The Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “increase the intensity of the activity in order to thwart terrorism in the Tulkarem refugee camp and in all refugee camps in the west semester”.
Katz previously said that he had instructed the military to prepare for “a longer stay” in some of the West Bank’s city refugee camps, of which he said. “
In the camps there are descendants of Palestinians who fled or forced to flee with Israel decades ago.
It was not clear how long Palestinians would be prevented from returning. Netanyahu said that the Israeli forces will remain “as long as necessary”.
The tanks were last used in the territory in 2002 when Israel fought against a fatal Palestinian uprising.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called Israeli moves “a dangerous escalation of the situation in the West Bank”, and in a statement, the international community asked to intervene in what it described as illegal “aggression of Israel”.
Netanyahu under the pressure to interrupt yourself
As part of preliminary peace agreements from the early nineties, Israel keeps control of large parts of the West Bank, while the Palestinian authority manages other areas. Israel regularly sends troops into Palestinian zones, but usually withdraws as soon as the missions are completed.
The United Nations say that current Israeli military operation has been the longest since the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s.
Violence has risen in Gaza Strip in the western Bank throughout the Israel Hamas War. Israel carried out raids, but Netanyahu from right -wing extremists were under pressure with the fight in Gaza and Lebanon, against the militan dance in West Bank.
More than 800 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7, 2023 when Hamas led an attack on South Israel. According to Israel, most militants, but young people who protested against the ideas, and people who are not involved in confrontations were also killed. A pregnant Palestinian woman was killed in the latest operation.
Jewish settlers also raged in Palestinian areas in the territory. There was also an increase in the Palestinian attacks that went from the West Bank. On Thursday, explosions rocked three empty buses in Israel in an attack attacks in Israel, which is alleged militant.
Israel delays the release of Palestinian prisoners
In the Middle East of 1967, Israel conquered the west bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
The raids in the West Bank come at a sensitive time because the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza remains weak on January 19.
Israel said early Sunday that the recent publication of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and prisoners was delayed until Hamas will prevent, which Israel calls “humiliating” handover of hostages.
The 620 prisoners had been released shortly after six Israeli hostages in Gaza on Saturday – five of them in staged ceremonies, which were cruelly criticized by the USA and the Red Cross.
The Hamas condemned the decision of Israel on Sunday to postpone the publication, and said their claim that the handover ceremonies of the hostages were “humiliating”, is wrong and an excuse to avoid Israel’s commitments in the Gaza custody agreement.
Ezzat El Rashq, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, said that the ceremonies do not contain an insult to the hostages during the publication process.
