Israel is carrying out large-scale military raids in parts of the occupied West Bank, where the decadeslong conflict with the Palestinians had worsened even before the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Israel says the operation, which appeared to be the largest since the start of the war, is aimed at preventing attacks on its citizens. Palestinians view such raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule.
The violence has escalated in recent years, particularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. The Palestinian Health Ministry says over 650 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank since then, the highest rate of casualties since a Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.
Most of the dead appear to have been militants killed during Israeli raids, which often set off gunbattles, but they also include civilian bystanders and rock-throwing protesters. Some have been killed in a parallel surge of settler violence, and there has also been a rise in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
Hundreds of Israeli forces took part in simultaneous raids launched late Tuesday across the northern West Bank focused on Jenin’s urban refugee camp, which has been a major militant bastion in recent years, as well as camps in Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camp in the Jordan Valley.
Armored vehicles blocked entrances and exits, bulldozers plowed up roads and set up sand berms, and soldiers on foot traded fire with militants. In Jenin, Israel said its forces surrounded hospitals to prevent fighters from sheltering in them. The army launched at least two airstrikes in the West Bank, a tactic that was rarely employed in the territory until a couple of years ago.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said a total of 16 people were killed, without saying whether they were fighters or civilians. Israel said all of those killed were militants, and Hamas claimed 10 were its fighters.
The dead also included a prominent local militant, Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, who was said to have survived previous attempts on his life. The military said its forces killed him along with four other militants in a gunbattle after they hid inside a mosque.
The army said the operations in Al-Faraa had wrapped up but were ongoing in Jenin.
Similar raids carried out on a near-daily basis have killed hundreds of militants over the years, including senior commanders who appear to have been quickly replaced. The violence has only worsened.
Israelis have long referred to such operations, in both the West Bank and Gaza, as “mowing the lawn,” acknowledging that any security gains will be short-lived.
“You see something growing, you need to cut it. But it means that in two months, you will be there again,” said Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli army intelligence officer who is now an analyst of Palestinian affairs at Tel Aviv University. “Without a political plan or a strategic move … we will be there again.”
Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians want those territories for a future state and view them as parts of a single country under military occupation.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and considers the entire city its capital. It withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but, along with Egypt, imposed a blockade on the territory after Hamas seized power in 2007.
In the West Bank, Israel has built well over 100 settlements housing more than 500,000 Jewish settlers, who have Israeli citizenship. The 3 million Palestinians in the territory live under seemingly open-ended military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercising limited control over cities and towns. Major human rights groups accuse Israel of the international crime of apartheid, allegations Israel rejects as an attack on its legitimacy.
Israel’s government refers to the West Bank by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria, and considers it the historical heartland of the Jewish people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is opposed to Palestinian statehood and has pledged to eventually annex the West Bank.
Hamas, which is active across the Palestinian territories, cited Israel’s actions in east Jerusalem and the West Bank as justifications for its Oct. 7 attack. The militant group has repeatedly called on Palestinians to rise up against Israeli rule.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recognizes Israel and favors a two-state solution to the conflict. But he is deeply unpopular among Palestinians and has been largely sidelined during the war. His security forces cooperate with the Israeli military but rarely confront Palestinian militants.
The Israeli raids have been concentrated in built-up refugee camps that date back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
Some 700,000 Palestinians — a majority of the prewar population — fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during that conflict and were not allowed to return, an exodus the Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or catastrophe.
Palestinian refugee camps across the Middle East resemble dense, urban slums and are home to millions of refugees and their descendants. Their despair has produced generations of militants who are waging what they see as an armed struggle to liberate their homeland. Israel views them as terrorists backed by its enemies in the region — nowadays Iran.
Palestinians believe they have the right to return to their pre-1948 homes. Israel refuses, because if that idea were fully implemented, it might result in a Palestinian majority living inside its borders. The fate of the refugees was one of the thorniest issues during nearly two decades of U.S.-backed peace talks, which last collapsed over 15 years ago.
The war in Gaza has displaced well over twice as many people as the Nakba, though most have remained inside the besieged territory. Israeli officials have spoken of using some of the same tactics in the West Bank that they have employed in Gaza, raising fears among Palestinians of another mass displacement.
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Eleanor Reich in New York contributed to this report.
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