In the days since a cease-fire agreement was reached in the Gaza Strip, Israel has targeted a Palestinian town 75 kilometers northeast of the enclave – which has a long history of resistance to the occupation.
On Wednesday, as some of its troops withdrew from Gaza, the Israeli army said it would continue operations in Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank occupied by Israel. The city has been a military base for decades and has been the target of raids by Israeli security forces.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hamas has been popular and has asserted its presence in the West Bank. Iran – which supports Hamas and other militant groups in the region – has bombarded the area with weapons. And the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank jointly with Israel, has seen its negative influence continue to wane.
Now, Israel seems to be focusing on the West Bank, especially Jenin. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel’s latest campaign aims to “end terrorism” and that it will be “big and important.”
Here’s what you need to know about Jenin and Israel’s recent operations there.
What happened?
On Wednesday, an Israeli army spokesman said 10 soldiers were “hit” during an operation in Jenin, without giving further details. Earlier, Israel said it had killed eight soldiers since the attack began.
The Ministry of Health in Palestine said that 10 people have been killed in Jenin and its suburbs since the attack began. And Palestinian officials quoted by Wafa, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority, said at least four people were wounded in the city on Wednesday.
Other cities in the West Bank were also attacked. The Palestinian Authority’s prisoner affairs commission said Israeli forces have arrested at least 25 Palestinians across the West Bank since Tuesday evening.
Why is Israel looking at the West Bank?
Since the October 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas in Israel, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has been losing support to groups like Hamas that favor armed struggle and fight against Israel, according to a study by the Palestine Center for Policy. and Research Studies.
At the same time, deadly Israeli attacks and attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank have increased. Israeli leaders say the military offensive is aimed at fighting terrorism in the region.
Lt Col. Herzi Halevi, the outgoing head of the Israeli army, in his speech on Tuesday, said that his forces have killed 794 terrorists in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began. “In many cases, we stopped the threat early before the terrorists could reach Israeli citizens,” he said.
Who is arming the army?
Iran operates an underground smuggling route through the Middle East, using intelligence, militants and gangs to deliver weapons to Palestinians in the West Bank, according to United States, Israeli and Iranian officials. The aim is to foment unrest in Israel by flooding the area with weapons, Iranian officials said.
Israel’s security forces have carried out a major offensive in the West Bank, saying this is part of Israel’s counter-terrorism efforts against Hamas and other armed groups.
What is the Palestinian leadership doing?
The Palestinian Authority is the governing body in some parts of the occupied West Bank. In December, security forces began fighting militants in and around Jenin, where the administration has lost control. The region is known as a hotbed for militant groups, including Hamas, which seek armed resistance to Israel.
The Palestinian Authority emerged from a peace process between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the 1990s that was supposed to lead to the creation of a Palestinian state but never happened.
In practice, the Israeli army – which is the occupying force in the area – has security control over Palestinian cities. The Palestinian Authority manages some local affairs, including garbage collection, education, hospitals and schools, and has its own security forces that work with their Israeli counterparts but have limited authority.
Jenin has long been a symbol of resistance.
The city’s reputation for national resistance dates back to the 1930s, when Palestinians took up arms against British rule in Palestine during what became known as the Arab Revolt.
Later, after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 that led to the creation of modern Israel and the flight or expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, Jenin cemented its reputation as a city that never surrendered when the Palestinian army, supported by the Iraqi army, defeated an Israeli attempt to take it.
The city is home to one of the first refugee camps built for Palestinians displaced by that war.
In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank after a war with neighboring Arab states. Jenin’s resonance today, both for Palestinians and Israelis, stems largely from the second intifada, or uprising, against the Israeli invasion of the early 2000s.
Israelis remember the city as the source of many of the suicide bombers sent to Israel at the time, while Palestinians remember a 10-day battle in 2002 between militants and Israeli forces that killed 52 Palestinians, possibly half of them civilians, according to the report. to the United Nations.
Jenin has often been the target of raids by the Israeli army. Both Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the Islamic Jihad terrorist group are recruiting from Jenin. And in recent years, new militias loosely linked to more radical groups have emerged from among a new generation frustrated by a Palestinian leadership they see as corrupt and permissive to Israeli rule.
Lara Jakes, Raja Abdulrahim, Isabel Kershner, Erika Solomon Aaron Boxman reporting contributed.
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