\ufeffThe Israeli military has intensified operations across the occupied West Bank, targeting Palestinian militant cells, imposing roadblocks and cutting communities off from the outside world. <\/p>\n
The sudden expansion of Israeli security operations in the West Bank has killed at least 10 people and follows the start of the delicate ceasefire process in Gaza, by which Israeli hostages are released in stages and will also see the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces. <\/p>\n
The move also comes as the Israeli right, and many in the settler movement, feel emboldened by the words of some officials in the Trump administration who have suggested Israel has the right to annex much or all of the West Bank, home to more than three million Palestinians. <\/p>\n
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has spoken of a new dynamic in the West Bank, saying the military will adopt tactics learned in the Gaza offensive in its efforts to eradicate militant groups and, <\/strong>in his words, \u201censure that terrorism does not return.\u201d <\/p>\n The Jenin refugee camp in the north of the West Bank, a sprawling area of narrow alleys that has long been a bastion of militant factions, is front and center of the Israel Defense Forces\u2019 (IDF) latest campaign. <\/p>\n Katz said Tuesday that Operation \u201cIron Wall\u201d would \u201celiminate terrorists and terror infrastructure in the camp, ensuring that terrorism does not return to the camp after the operation is over \u2013 the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza.\u201d <\/p>\n The latest IDF operations have involved building more roadblocks across the West Bank. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said Thursday there are now nearly 900 military checkpoints, including more than 173 iron gates installed since October 2023. <\/p>\n Al-Roub said the IDF operation was \u201cone of the biggest and most intense\u201d yet launched: <\/strong>\u201cWe are talking over 20,000 people have been displaced. Many have been arrested.\u201d <\/p>\n Palestinian television reported Thursday that the IDF had established roadblocks near Ramallah and sealed off one village in the area. Additionally, it said military checkpoints in the Nablus area had been reinforced, leaving thousands of people stranded amid lengthy waits. <\/p>\n People were also unable to leave Jericho, where military checkpoints had been closed. Palestinian journalists reported Thursday that tear gas had been used against people waiting at a Jericho checkpoint. <\/p>\n One woman had died of a heart attack at a checkpoint near Hebron after the IDF prevented her from being transferred to hospital, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported Wednesday. <\/p>\n \u201cMost of the movement from the south and north of the West Bank is paralyzed while illegal Israeli settlers move freely and continue to attack Palestinian cars on the roads,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are seeing disturbing patterns of unlawful use of force in the West Bank that is unnecessary, indiscriminate and disproportionate. This echoes the tactics Israeli forces have employed in Gaza,\u201d said Angelita Caredda, Middle East and North Africa regional director for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). <\/p>\n The IDF said Thursday that the checkpoints were \u201ca tool we use in the fight against terror, enabling civilian movement while providing a layer of screening to prevent terrorists from escaping.<\/strong>\u201d <\/p>\n The operation began two days after the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire began and demonstrates a shift in the Israeli government\u2019s focus. <\/p>\n Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tuesday: \u201cWe have begun to change the security concept in Judea and Samaria [the Biblical term many Israelis use to describe the West Bank] and in the campaign to eradicate terrorism in the region.\u201d <\/p>\n He also claimed the cabinet had decided that security in the West Bank had become an official war goal for Israel. The Prime Minister\u2019s Office did not confirm the move. <\/p>\n The truce in Gaza has allowed Israeli security forces to concentrate on the West Bank, where groups aligned with Hamas have become more active. There is a risk, however, that intensive Israeli military action across the West Bank will put the Gaza ceasefire under strain. <\/p>\n Katz has frequently alleged that Iran is behind the surge in militant activity in the West Bank and is supplying weapons to the groups. <\/p>\n \u201cWe will not allow Judea and Samaria to become like Gaza or southern Lebanon\u2026 We will act to cut off Iran\u2019s tentacles in the refugee camps in the West Bank and ensure the security of the communities and residents.\u201d <\/p>\n Israeli officials have said that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been unable to confront and subdue militant groups. An operation in December by the Palestinian security forces against militants in Jenin yielded little progress. The militant factions include the Al Aqsa Martyrs\u2019 Brigade, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Qassem Brigades, who together <\/strong>fight under the banner of the Jenin Battalion. <\/p>\n Israel\u2019s Channel 11 quoted a senior military source Thursday as saying,<\/strong> \u201cThe PA did what they could. We recognized the need to act against the terrorists\u2019 capabilities, we are no longer waiting for their intentions. Our goal is to neutralize the Jenin battalion.\u201d <\/p>\n To some right-wing Israelis, the advent of the Trump administration \u2013 along with success in degrading Hamas and Hezbollah \u2013<\/strong> provides a unique opportunity to extend Israeli superiority in the region. <\/p>\n During his first term, Trump abandoned the long-held US stance that settlements are illegal; Biden restored it. Several of Trump\u2019s nominees have suggested Israel has the right to annex the West Bank. <\/p>\n More than 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war. Jewish settlements there are considered illegal under international law. <\/p>\n Elise Stefanik, who is slated to become the new US ambassador to the United Nations, said Tuesday she agreed with the view that Israel has \u201ca biblical right\u201d to annex the West Bank. Mike Huckabee, who is expected to become US ambassador to Israe\ufeffl, has said in the past that there is \u201cno such thing as a Palestinian.\u201d <\/p>\n On Monday, the day he took office, Trump rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. <\/p>\n Anti-Palestinian violence by extremist settlers has become a near-daily occurrence in the West Bank. In 2024, the UN documented 1,420 incidents of settler violence resulting in casualties and\/or property damage in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. <\/p>\n Some of those responsible were arrested, but the Israeli Defense Ministry last week decided to release Jewish settlers held under what\u2019s known as administrative detention \u201cin light of the expected release of terrorists to the territories of Judea and Samaria,\u201d under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire deal. <\/p>\n Katz said the decision to release the settlers would \u201csend a clear message of strengthening and encouraging settlement, which stands at the forefront of the struggle against Palestinian terror and growing security challenges.\u201d <\/p>\n Correction<\/em>: This story has been updated to correct Mike Huckabee\u2019s previous comments about Palestinians. <\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n \ufeffThe Israeli military has intensified operations across the occupied West Bank, targeting Palestinian militant cells, imposing roadblocks and cutting communities off from the outside world. The sudden expansion of Israeli security operations in the West Bank has killed at least 10 people and follows the start of the delicate ceasefire process in Gaza, by which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} How does the ceasefire affect the situation in the West Bank?<\/h2>\n
How the Trump administration affects dynamics<\/h2>\n