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Israeli military vehicles drive on the street during an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 21. (Raneen Sawafta/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
By Kareem Khadder, Eugenia Yosef, Mick Krever and Mostafa Salem
(CNN) — The Israeli military killed at least seven Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday as the prime minister announced the start of a “large-scale military operation” in the restive city of Jenin.
Israel’s security cabinet launched the military offensive – which involved the Israeli military, police and Shin Bet security agency – to “eradicate terrorism in Jenin,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. The operation is called “Iron Wall,” he said.
The military operation was launched days after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza went into effect.
The Israeli military carried out a major, deadly military operation in the northern West Bank in August and September, which it called “Operation Summer Camps.”
The Palestinian state news agency Wafa said Israeli warplanes struck Jenin and Israeli forces, including sharpshooters and armored vehicles, were surrounding the city’s refugee camp and stopping ambulances from entering.
Videos from local journalists showed a large number of armored vehicles, including armored bulldozers, entering the city.
It is not yet clear whether the seven killed were bystanders or engaged in hostilities with Israeli forces. Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing Al Quds Brigades said its fighters were firing at advancing Israeli troops around the refugee camp.
Islamic Jihad said Israeli military operation is an attempt by Netanyahu to save his “faltering government coalition” and spoil the “joy” after Palestinian prisoners were released in the West Bank as part of the Gaza truce.
“We call on our people throughout the occupied West Bank to confront this criminal campaign by all means, thwart its goals, and consolidate the enemy’s defeat in subduing the will of our people in the West Bank and Gaza,” the militant group said in a statement.
New ‘war goal’
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right nationalist who opposed the Gaza ceasefire, said in a statement Tuesday that security in the West Bank had been added to the country’s “war goals.” CNN has asked the Prime Minister’s Office for confirmation of that claim.
“After Gaza and Lebanon, today, with God’s help, we have begun to change the security concept in Judea and Samaria and in the campaign to eradicate terrorism in the region,” he said, using the biblical name by which Israelis refer to the West Bank.
Smotrich had publicly toyed with quitting the Israeli government over the Gaza ceasefire, but decided to stay in the cabinet after saying he had received assurances from Netanyahu on his commitment to continue Israel’s military operations.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health, which reported the casualties, said that 35 people injured as a result of the Israeli operation were transferred to several hospitals in the city.
A day before the operation was launched, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said the military “must be ready for significant operations” in the West Bank.
Israeli troops and settlers had killed 851 Palestinian in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since Hamas’ October 7 attack, including 173 children. Meanwhile, 2024 was the third-deadliest year for Israelis in the West Bank since data collection began in 2008, according to the UN, which recorded the deaths of 34 Israelis – 15 soldiers and 19 civilians. Of those civilians, seven were settlers.
Late last month, the Palestinian Authority (PA) launched its own security operation in an attempt to weed out militant groups aligned with Hamas in the city. The militants say the Ramallah-based government has sold out to Israel. The fighting ended after a fragile agreement with both parties 43 days after it started.
The PA’s security forces have tried to arrest dozens of men they describe as outlaws trying to “hijack” the refugee camp, which was established for Palestinians uprooted from their homes after Israel’s creation in 1948, and is now a built-up area that is home to some 25,000 people.
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