Israeli tanks moved into the occupied West Bank on Sunday for the first time in decades in what Palestinian authorities called a “dangerous escalation,” after the defense minister said troops will remain in parts of the territory for a year and tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled cannot return.
Associated Press journalists saw several tanks move along unpaved tracks into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel.
Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the northern West Bank on Jan. 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold — and has expanded it to nearby areas.
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 deadly raids have caused destruction in urban areas.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “increase the intensity of the activity to thwart terrorism" in all refugee camps in the West Bank.
“We will not allow the return of residents, and we will not allow terrorism to return and grow,” he said.
Earlier, Katz said he had instructed the military to prepare for “an extended stay” in some of the West Bank's urban refugee camps, from where he said about 40,000 Palestinians have fled, leaving the areas “emptied of residents.” That figure was confirmed by the United Nations.
The camps are home to descendants of Palestinians who fled or were forced to flee during wars with Israel decades ago. It was not clear how long Palestinians would be prevented from returning. Katz said the troops would stay “for the coming year.” Netanyahu said they would stay “as long as needed."
Tanks were last deployed in the territory in 2002, when Israel fought a deadly Palestinian uprising.
The Palestinian foreign ministry called the Israeli moves “a dangerous escalation of the situation in the West Bank,” and urged the international community in a statement to intervene in what it termed Israel's illegal “aggression.”
“Even if they stay, we will return to the camp at the end,” said Mohamed al-Sadi, one of those displaced from Jenin. “This camp is ours. We have no other place to go.”
Under interim peace agreements from the early 1990s, Israel maintains control over large parts of the West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority administers other areas. Israel regularly sends troops into Palestinian zones but typically withdraws them once missions are completed.
The U.N. says the current Israeli military operation is the longest since the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s.
Violence has surged in the West Bank throughout the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Israel has carried out raids, but with fighting in Gaza and Lebanon on hold, Netanyahu has been under pressure from far-right governing partners to crack down on militancy in the West Bank.
More than 800 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the war in Gaza erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, with a Hamas attack on southern Israel. Israel says most were militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions as well as people not involved in confrontations have also been killed. In the most recent operation, a pregnant Palestinian woman was killed.
Jewish settlers also have carried out rampages in Palestinian areas in the territory. There has also been a spike in Palestinian attacks emanating from the West Bank. On Thursday, blasts rocked three empty buses in Israel in what police view as a suspected militant attack.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians want all three territories for their future independent state.
The West Bank raids come at a sensitive time, as the truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza remains tenuous.
With a week left in the ceasefire’s first phase, Israel and Hamas do not appear to have begun negotiations on its second one. The truce’s collapse could lead to renewed fighting in Gaza, where Netanyahu said 63 hostages remain, including the remains of a soldier captured in 2014.
“We are ready to return to intense fighting at any moment," Netanyahu said Sunday.
The U.S. special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told CNN on Sunday he expects the second phase to go forward, adding: “We have to get an extension of phase one and so I’ll be going into the region this week, probably Wednesday, to negotiate that.” He told CBS he will visit Qatar, Egypt, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Israel said early Sunday it was delaying the latest release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners until it gets assurances that Hamas stops what Israel calls “humiliating” handovers of hostages.
The 620 prisoners should have been released shortly after six Israeli hostages in Gaza were freed Saturday — five of them in staged ceremonies criticized by the U.S. and Red Cross as cruel.
Palestinian family members were distraught. “What have the prisoners done? We don’t know what happened. They killed our joy,” said one mother, Najah Zaqqot.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu faced new criticism over the war while speaking at a military graduation. As he held up a picture of Shiri Bibas and her young boys, Ariel and Kfir, whose remains were returned from Gaza last week, to demonstrate “what we are fighting against,” audience members called out “Shame!” and “Why didn’t you save them?” The prime minister didn’t react.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
30 Comments
GuruMick
Wake up to the Israel plan to ethnically cleanse all areas of Palestinian people. Here, 40,000 forced to leave, with 7 minutes notice. IDF acted like storm troopers in this "evacuation ".
Look at the death toll of Palestinians in the west bank.
A pregnant woman and a toddler the last victims to be shot and murdered.
IDF "looking into this "....how do you "mistakenly "shoot a toddler ffs ?
Israel sowing hatred everywhere .Sent war planes over the funeral of Hezbollah leader in Lebanon.
Now warning Syria to stay away from the Israel border while Israel continues to attack sites in Syria.
Israel not keeping agreement for prisoner release in Gaza...breaking its word once again.
Desert Tortoise
The Palestinian Genocide moves to a new front and the US is fully complicit.
iknowall
Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks.
It'S good to see Israel nipping this in the bud,
It's about time, because it is the only path to peace for Israel.
Why should they allow their country to be surrounded by terrorists?
starpunk
Syria has its own issues of rebuilding to deal with after the overthrow of Assad, so Israel had better leave them alone.
You didn't think Nutty Yahoo would keep his word, didya?
deanzaZZR
Well, at least we can tell our grandkids that we lived through a genocide.
iknowall
Thankfully Israel is putting an end to the genocide perpetuated by the Arabs upon the Jews.
wallace
Netanyahu and Trump are crushing the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to ethnic cleanse both places.
iknowall
It'a part of Israel's self-defense--a very obvious one. No surprises here.
banger
Albert Einstein said,
I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. My awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain—especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state. In Einstein open letter 1948 he deeply criticized Menachem Begin’s Herut Zionist (Freedom) Party for the Deir Yassin Massacre attributed to "terrorist bands",and likened Herut to "the Naz i and Fascist parties". He further stated, "The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party". Einstein said of the party that "Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism...It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character", while also criticizing Zionist Irgun by calling it a "terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization"
Zionism is the Jew’s new “Golden Calf” to worship and follow. Zionism is an ideology of “Egoism” – Me first even if it is at the expensive of others. Blinded by the Golden Calf of Zionism the people of Israel have lost their moral center and in Zionism break most of God’s Ten Commitments. Zionism has come to justified and create a Apartheid - Warsaw like ghetto/prison
iknowall
The Arabs rejected the creation of a Jewish state--and of another state for the Arabs.
Meanwhile, with the re-creation of Israel, we have Arabs and Jews living together in peace in the creation of that Jewish state.
Looks like Einstein got it wrong.
wallace
Ethnic cleansing is illegal under any circumstance.
kurisupisu
@iknowall
Einstein despite being Jewish and a witness to a holocaust, still found it necessary to opine on the ark ward imposed artificially of a Jewish state-an insightful genius…
WoodyLee
When Bibi and his savage war mongers realize what the rest of the world already have that OCCUPATION with APARTHIED never worked.
Bibi is probably the worst option for peace in the Middle East, Israel will never rest with this fugitive in office.
WoodyLee
Funny how Palestinians are taking photo's with Bibi's Tanks! must have gotten use to this war monger.
WoodyLee
"" Meanwhile, Netanyahu faced new criticism over the war while speaking at a military graduation. As he held up a picture of Shiri Bibas and her young boys, Ariel and Kfir, whose remains were returned from Gaza last week, to demonstrate “what we are fighting against,” audience members called out “Shame!” and “Why didn’t you save them?” The prime minister didn’t react.""
SIMPLE, Bibi Doesn't Care.
iknowall
He also said:
*“Zionist cause is very close to my heart…. I am very confident of the happy development of the Jewish colony and am glad that there should be a tiny speck on this earth in which the members of our tribe should not be aliens,”.*
Wrong.
wallace
Ethnic cleansing is defined as a crime against humanity under the statutes of both the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
RichardPearce
Denying the truth about the Crimes Against Humanity of the Israeli regime may be a habit for some, but like all bad habits, the consequences are likely to be long term and way worse than the people with them think they could be.
iknowall
No. There's no definition of ethnic cleansing under international law.
GuruMick
"There is no definition of ethnic cleansing under international law "
Maybe, the crimes of the Nazis against Jews and others were similarly not defined WHEN THEY HAPPENED.
GuruMick
Genocide Convention adopted into International Law in 1948.
So according to one poster, the Jews did not suffer a genocide because the crime had not been CODIFIED/DEFINED at the time of the Holocaust.
iknowall
Anti-semitic irony!
Anyway, what the Nazis did was GENOCIDE.
*The word “genocide” was first coined by Polish lawyer Raphäel Lemkin in 1944 in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. It consists of the Greek prefix genos, meaning race or tribe, and the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing. *Lemkin developed the term partly in response to the Nazi policies of systematic murder of Jewish people during the Holocaust,
Let's ask the UN about ethnic cleansing:.
As ethnic cleansing has not been recognized as an independent crime under international law, there is no precise definition of this concept or the exact acts to be qualified as ethnic cleansing.
https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/definition
Desert Tortoise
Why would they accept it? Why should they? How would you feel if someone or some other government told you that you had to surrender your land and live as a refugee so someone of a preferred religion could live there? Any sane nation would object to that.
Desert Tortoise
Forcible displacement of a population from their land is one of the definitions of a genocide.
GuruMick
Iknowall.... but the if term genocide was coined only in 1944...were any crimes committed against Jews before that ?
The argument you make is senseless.
In many legal areas , crimes are defined and put on the statute books, after a number of incidents have been identified .
Strangling /stalking /intimidation etc now part of the "domestic violence " group of identifiable actions.
Maybe some posters are flailing , out of their depth in matters of logic and law and history.
Google wont save you either.
iknowall
Your argument does not make sense because the Arabs were not a nation.
Wrong.
But murdering the elderly, families in their homes, babies, just because they're Jewish, is one of the definitions of genocide.
iknowall
Yep.
Various Nazi officials were convicted of committing, among other crimes, crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials.
Any other legal aspects I can clear up for you?
iknowall
No.
And if you read your own source you will see what they were legally charged with:
"By their acts or omissions" the accused are charged with:
*Dario KORDIC : crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, violations of the laws or customs of war. *
*Tihofil BLASKIC** : crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, violations of the laws or customs of war. *
*Mario CERKEZ : grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, violations of the laws or customs of war. *
*Ivan SANTIC, Pero SKOPLJAK and Zlatko ALEKSOVSKI : a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, a violation of the laws or customs of war.*
GuruMick
"Crimes against humanity " doctrine not codified in the UN until 1945...again, after the crimes were committed.
So no, "Iknowall ", your statement about "ethnic cleansing " not on the statutes doesnt hold water as a means to deny these crimes are not occurring in Palestinian lands.
Do some more work on logic and leave google for another time.
GuruMick
People use the Bible/Torah to justify certain actions..."God promised us the land ", but ignore other parts of the same book.... "Death by stoning for working on the Sabbath ".
Better be realistic...Israel is a white, Euro, settler colonial project, underwritten by Euro, UK and USA, that disenfranchised the original, long existing people of the land that Zionists seized.
Racism and a belittling of Arab peoples lies at the heart of all the Zionist justifications for the war crimes .
Just be honest about things.