Palestinian militants on Monday said that an unusual deployment of Israeli tanks in the occupied West Bank, part of a major offensive that has displaced tens of thousands, might be a step toward annexation.
The torn-up streets surrounding the Jenin refugee camp in the territory’s north were empty on Monday, a journalist reported, as three Israeli Merkava tanks stationed at higher vantage points overlooked the area.
Displaced camp residents occasionally entered through a back alley to retrieve belongings from their homes.
Photo: AFP
“We go back in to get things, whatever we can. We take the risk because we have to,” 52-year-old Ahmad al-Qahrawi said. “We had nothing when we left, no clothes, nothing. We go back to get clothes because it’s cold.”
Israeli leaders have repeatedly pledged to annex at least parts of the West Bank, which has been occupied since 1967, but any such proposal has been met with strong opposition from Palestinians and much of the international community.
In a weeks-long military operation in the north of the territory, launched about the time a truce took hold in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces looking for militants have cleared three refugee camps and deployed tanks in Jenin.
Militant group Islamic Jihad said that the mass evacuations and first deployment of Israeli tanks in the territory since the early 2000s “confirm the occupation’s plans to annex the West Bank by force.”
The group, which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza and has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, denounced “a new act of aggression,” which it said was “aimed at uprooting our people from their land.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said many residents who fled have taken shelter in “crowded mosques and schools.”
The damage has hampered displaced residents’ “access to basic needs such as clean water, food, medical care and shelter,” and the winter cold “has made it more difficult to survive,” it added in a statement.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said the military offensive “appears to exceed law enforcement standards” and has had severe consequences.
“The continued use of lethal war-like tactics in residential areas is extremely concerning,” the OCHA said.
Throughout the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank — a separate Palestinian territory — has soared, as have calls to annex it, most notably by Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich.
Since the start of the war in October 2023, Israeli troops or settler attacks have killed at least 900 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 32 Israelis over the same period, according to official figures.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday rejected “calls for annexation” and said he was “gravely concerned by the rising violence.”
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said that “we are closely watching developments, and cannot hide our concern when it comes to the West Bank.”
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