In the days after a ceasefire agreement took effect in the Gaza Strip, Israel turned its attention to a Palestinian town about 75 miles northeast of the enclave, a town with a long history of resistance and militant activity.
On Wednesday, as some of its troops withdrew from Gaza, the Israeli army said it was carrying out an operation in Jenin, a city in the northern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The city has been a hotbed of militancy and the target of raids by Israeli security forces for decades.
Since the war in Gaza began, Hamas has become increasingly popular and established its presence in the West Bank. Iran – which supports Hamas and other militant groups in the region – has flooded the territory with weapons. And the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank in coordination with Israel, has seen its tenuous influence diminish further.
Now Israel seems to be focusing its attention on the West Bank, and on Jenin in particular. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel’s latest operation aims to “eradicate terrorism” and that it will be “large and significant.”
Here’s what to know about Jenin and Israel’s latest operation there.
What is happening?
An Israeli army spokesman said on Wednesday that 10 militants had been “hit” during the operation in Jenin, without providing further details. Previously, Israel said it had killed eight militants since the raid began.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 10 people had been killed in and around Jenin since the raid began. And Palestinian officials quoted by Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, said at least four people were injured in the city on Wednesday.
Other West Bank cities were also targeted in raids. The Palestinian Authority’s prisoner affairs commission said Israeli forces had arrested at least 25 Palestinians in the West Bank since Tuesday evening.
Why is Israel targeting the West Bank?
Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has lost support to factions like Hamas that favor armed struggle and are actively fighting Israel, according to a survey by the Palestinian Center for Politics. and survey research.
At the same time, deadly Israeli raids and attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank have intensified. Israeli leaders say the military raids aim to counter terrorism in the area.
Lieutenant Colonel Herzi Halevi, the Israeli army’s outgoing chief of staff, said in a speech Tuesday that his forces have killed 794 militants in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began. “In most cases, we thwarted the threat in advance before the terrorists could reach Israeli citizens,” he said.
Who is arming the militants?
Iran is operating a clandestine smuggling route through the Middle East, employing intelligence agents, militants and criminal gangs to deliver weapons to Palestinians in the West Bank, according to officials from the United States, Israel and Iran. The goal is to foment unrest against Israel by flooding the territory with weapons, Iranian officials said.
Israeli security forces have carried out a large-scale crackdown across the West Bank, saying this is part of Israel’s counter-terrorism efforts against Hamas and other armed factions.
What is the Palestinian leadership doing?
The Palestinian Authority is the governing body in some areas of the occupied West Bank. In December, security forces began cracking down on militants in and around Jenin, where authorities lost control. The region is known as a stronghold of militant groups, including Hamas, who call for armed resistance to Israel.
The Palestinian Authority was born out of a peace process between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the 1990s that was supposed to lead to the creation of a Palestinian state, but which never happened.
In practice, the Israeli army – the occupying force in the territory – has security control over Palestinian cities. The Palestinian Authority manages some local matters, including waste collection, education, hospitals and schools, and has its own security forces that coordinate with their Israeli counterparts but have limited authority.
Jenin has long been a symbol of resistance.
The city’s reputation for resistance dates back to the 1930s, when Palestinians took up arms against British rule of Palestine during what was known as the Arab Revolt.
Subsequently, in the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War that involved the creation of modern Israel and the flight or expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, Jenin consolidated its reputation as a city that never surrendered when Palestinian fighters, supported by Iraqi soldiers, repelled an Israeli attempt to take him.
The city is home to one of the original refugee camps set up for Palestinians displaced by that war.
In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank after a war with neighboring Arab states. Jenin’s resonance today, for both Palestinians and Israelis, stems largely from the second intifada, or uprising, against the Israeli occupation in the early 2000s.
Israelis remember the city as the source of dozens of suicide bombers sent to Israel in that period, and Palestinians recall a 10-day battle in 2002 between militants and Israeli forces that killed 52 Palestinians, half of whom may have been civilians, according to the Nations United.
Jenin has often been the target of raids by Israeli forces. Both Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the Islamic Jihad militant group have recruited in Jenin. And in recent years, new militias loosely affiliated with more established groups have emerged among a younger generation that is frustrated with a Palestinian leadership they see as corrupt and pro-Israeli occupation.
Lara Jakes, King Abdulrahim, Isabel Kershner, Erika Solomon AND Aaron Boxerman contributed to the reporting.