Airstrikes, evacuation orders, homeless refugees, besieged hospitals. The litany of war is familiar. The location is different.
Even as a fragile ceasefire enters its fourth week in the Gaza Strip, a parallel conflict is ramping up in the northern West Bank, where Israel is in the third week of an offensive that experts and residents say is employing the same tactics used in Gaza.
In its “Iron Wall” campaign, Israel is targeting what it says are militants – backed by Iran and Hamas – based in the towns of Tulkarm and Jenin. It says the militants are behind hundreds of attacks on Israelis and Jewish settlers.
Why We Wrote This
As Israel presses ahead with a massive military operation in the West Bank, which it says targets militants backed by Iran and Hamas, it’s relying on tactics used in the war in Gaza. The result for Palestinians is a rising level of destruction and displacement.
“There is no precedent for the Israeli occupation’s destruction and killing of innocent people in the West Bank,” says the Jenin governor, Kamel Abu al-Rub. “What happened in Gaza is now happening in Jenin.”
According to Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, the Israeli military’s spokesperson, the militant groups, aided by guns smuggled from Iran, have been operating from within civilian buildings, including mosques, schools, and hospitals.
The result: a broad, punishing offensive that has affected every town and village north of the central West Bank city of Ramallah and displaced some 40,000 people.
According to the Palestinian Authority (PA), several civilians are among the 70 people Israel has killed in its offensive, including 10 children and a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
As of Tuesday, Israeli military operations were ongoing in four West Bank refugee camps: Jenin, Tulkarm, Far’a, and Nur Shams.
But the strikes and destruction extend to residential neighborhoods far beyond the camps, in Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tobas, residents say.
Main roads have been torn up in the towns and water, sewage, and electricity cut, bringing economic activity and daily life to a halt.
Also destroyed: a PA security crackdown that sought to arrest the very same militants targeted by Israel. Observers and residents say the PA operation had been progressing toward a deal for the militants to surrender their arms when Israel launched its offensive. Some Israeli military experts maintain that not enough had been achieved.
According to local residents and officials, the thousands of people driven from their refugee camp homes are now living in temporary shelters in schools and mosques and with residents of neighboring areas who have opened their homes.
But even in these makeshift refuges, resources are dwindling.
“People thought they were going to leave for three days, or a week at the most. But it has been two weeks and there is no sign when they can return,” says Mr. Abu al-Rub, the governor. “With the economy being hit, even hosts are running out of food and supplies to share.”
“Goal is migration”
As part of its campaign, Israel has erected dozens of military checkpoints across the West Bank, including gates at the entrances to towns and villages at which every car that goes through is checked. Israeli curfews seal off West Bank villages from dusk till dawn.
“In the West Bank, the targeting of camps is the next step” following Israel’s war in Gaza, says Palestinian political analyst Jehad Harb. “They want to force camp residents between two choices: to live under airstrikes or to leave – migrate to the cities, to Jordan, or further abroad.”
“Israel is systematically emptying out refugee camps, forcibly displacing people, and razing them to the ground,” says Laith Hussein, an ambulance worker in Tulkarm and resident of the Nur Shams camp. “There is a lot of fear.”
“The true goal is migration from the camp,” charges Mr. Abu al-Rub. “By destroying people’s homes and livelihoods, they are pressuring these people to migrate into Jordan.”
Adding to Palestinian fears that the displacement of refugees will become permanent are pledges by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz that his country’s soldiers would remain in the Jenin camp after the operation ends. He declined to specify how long.
Also stoking fears among Palestinians is the support for the offensive among far-right Israeli politicians and government members who are calling for a wider war in the West Bank and encouraging the “voluntary” migration of Palestinians.
Damaged homes, infrastructure
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani insists that the Israeli army repairs infrastructure damaged in the offensive or helps local authorities to do so. “Our goal remains to dismantle terrorist networks while minimizing harm to civilians,” he says.
But local officials and residents report widespread destruction that goes beyond targeting militants.
In one instance last week, the Israeli army demolished 23 houses in one neighborhood in Jenin’s refugee camp using explosives. The operation cleared a path for its vehicles and tanks to better maneuver in the densely built camp – similar to a practice repeatedly employed across Gaza.
Residents say Israeli forces appear to be using bulldozers to cut the Jenin and Tulkarm camp into easily controlled segments.
Meanwhile the PA security campaign, which had surrounded the Jenin camp only a few weeks ago, is now a distant memory.
According to Palestinian officials in Jenin, the PA and camp residents were close to a deal that would have seen PA security forces withdraw in return for militants laying down their arms, in some instances turning themselves in.
“We were just about to reach an agreement when the Israelis launched their campaign, ruining everything,” said one official.
Kobi Michael, former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel’s Ministry for Strategic Affairs, said the Israeli government concluded that the PA’s operation in the refugee camp “fell short,” prompting it to send in its own forces – using now familiar tactics.
“We had to go to the model of Gaza: Go inside the refugee camp, evacuate people, and bulldoze buildings in order to dismantle the infrastructure,” said Dr. Michael, a visiting professor at the University of South Wales UK. “They say, ‘We will do more Oct. 7 attacks,’ and we have stopped playing games.”
Now the PA is watching from its offices as a bystander.
Residents in Jenin and Tulkarm accuse the authority of refusing to assist beleaguered residents or to offer guidance in the face of the Israeli military offensive on their towns.
“The authority is missing in action, silent,” says Mr. Hussein, the Nur Shams camp resident. “There is a war, and we are left on our own.”
