Israel expands West Bank operation, evacuates refugee camp: What we know
The Israeli military has conducted major security raids in the West Bank, prompting the Palestinian president to return early from Saudi Arabia.
Israel ordered the evacuation of a refugee camp in the West Bank on Wednesday, following a night of security raids targeting armed groups in the occupied Palestinian territory.
What happened: The Palestinian Authority’s WAFA news agency reported at around 1:40 p.m. local time (6:40 a.m. EST) that Israeli forces ordered residents of the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarm, to leave within four hours. Israeli forces set up a post in the camp’s al-Maslakh neighborhood to search residents as they departed, according to the outlet.
The Nur Shams camp was established in 1952 after the 1948 war and has a population of more than 13,500 people as of 2022, according to a United Nations fact sheet from that year. Israel conducted an extensive, three-day raid in the camp in April against Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian armed groups operating in Nur Shams, the Associated Press reported at the time.
The news of the evacuation follows Israeli security raids throughout the West Bank overnight and into Wednesday. WAFA reported that nine Palestinians were killed in “large-scale” Israeli military operations in northern parts of the territory. Three were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in Misilya, southeast of Jenin, on Wednesday morning, four were killed in a drone strike in Fara’a, south of Tubas, at dawn, and two were killed in a raid in Jenin on Tuesday night, per the outlet.
WAFA also reported an Israeli raid in Tulkarm on Tuesday evening.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cut short his trip to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, citing “Israel’s escalated aggression on the northern West Bank," WAFA reported. The outlet described his spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, as saying the raids along with Israeli actions in Gaza "will lead to dire and dangerous results."
The Israeli military said in a post on X that it began a “counterterrorism operation” along with the Shin Bet domestic security agency and the Israeli border police in Jenin and Tulkarm overnight. It said three “armed terrorists” were killed in an airstrike near Jenin and another four were killed in an airstrike in Fara’a. Israeli forces killed two others, made arrests and confiscated weapons in the Jenin and Tulkarm areas, read the post.
The raid follows an attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv earlier this month. Israeli military and security officials believe the plot was devised in the northern West Bank, according to reports in Israeli and international media.
A total of 660 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, according to WAFA. At least 30 Israelis have been killed in attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem in the same time period, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing Israeli tallies.
Why it matters: Tensions in the West Bank have spiked since the start of the Gaza war, with attacks by Israeli settlers and Palestinian armed groups as well as Israeli military raids becoming common occurrences.
Israeli settler violence has drawn scrutiny and sanctions from the United States. The State Department announced sanctions on the Israeli nongovernmental organization Hashomer Yosh on Wednesday as well as on Yitzhak Levi Filant, the civilian security coordinator of the Yitzhar settlement in the West Bank.
Volunteers for Hashomer Yosh allegedly prevented residents of the village of Khirbet Zanuta from returning to their homes earlier this year. Filant allegedly “led a group of armed settlers to set up roadblocks and conduct patrols to pursue and attack Palestinians in their lands and forcefully expel them from their lands” in February, according to the department.
Know more: US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials met in Cairo over the weekend for Gaza cease-fire talks. The mediators have been making a renewed push to reach a cease-fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas in recent weeks, though an agreement has remained elusive.
Israeli security forces rescued a Bedouin hostage from Gaza on Tuesday.
