Israeli leaders suggest the operation was plotted during a backroom deal made during Gaza ceasefire vote

“It’s a war aim, and when you are in war, you have a different set of tools,” Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS AND MARIAM BARGHOUTI, DROP SITE NEWS, JAN 21, 2025

Israel launched a major military operation on Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, raiding the city with troops, military vehicles, and bulldozers backed by airstrikes, drones, and Apache helicopters. At least nine Palestinians have been killed and more than 40 wounded in the ongoing operation, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry, which Israel has dubbed “Operation Iron Wall.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the goal of the “large scale and significant military operation” was to “to eradicate terrorism in Jenin.”

“We are acting systematically and decisively against the Iranian axis wherever it extends its reach – whether in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, or Judea and Samaria – and our efforts will continue,” Netanyahu wrote in a post on X, using the name by which Israel refers to the occupied West Bank.

Drop Site News is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

Israeli soldiers stormed the city from the Jamaleh military checkpoint on Tuesday afternoon after a special unit had infiltrated the area, according to local journalists in Jenin. “At around 1:00 p.m. there were Israeli special forces near our home west of the camp, and there was heavy gunfire in the area,” Susan Mahajneh, 35-year-old resident of the camp, told Drop Site News.

“I got the kids ready and we began making our way outside the camp in light of the increasing danger with live ammunition being fired while Apache helicopters hovered above,” Mahajneh said. “I carried my kids in my arms as they cried from fear, and kept walking towards Ibn Sina hospital in search of some safety and refuge.” Mahajneh is now seeking shelter with a relative who lives outside the camp. “It was incredibly difficult to escape as Israeli forces shot in our direction to force us back into the house,” she said, “but I refused and insisted we leave so I can protect my kids from what’s to come.”

According to residents in the camp, the Israeli army invaded while Palestinian Authority security forces —commonly derided as a “subcontractor” to the Israeli occupation— were stationed inside the camp with their armored vehicles. The PA troops did not fire back at the Israeli army and instead immediately withdrew from the camp. “We withdrew from Jenin refugee camp to avoid direct confrontation with the Israeli army,” PA security forces spokesperson Brigadier General Anwar Rajab said in a statement.

According to eyewitnesses and civilians inside the camp, Israeli forces have laid siege to the Jenin refugee camp and snipers are targeting anyone who tries to leave. “People tried to escape from the camp amid the ongoing Israeli invasion, but only some were able to get out. Others remain stuck at the edges of the camp unable to leave,” Ahmad, a 26-year-old resident of the camp, told Drop Site on condition of anonymity.

As he spoke, the sound of explosions and gunfire echoed in the background. “They just targeted in the area we were in with an airstrike,” he said. According to Ahmad, the second airstrike in the span of three hours targeted an area where ambulances were stationed in the camp. Israeli military bulldozers also tore up and destroyed a number of streets in the city.

Among those killed by Israeli forces on Tuesday was a civilian named Abed Alwahhab Saadi. In footage posted online, he can be seen walking unarmed along an empty road as he suddenly comes under fire and begins to run before being shot and falling face down in the ground. Another shocking video shows a family repeatedly being targeted by gunfire while driving in their car, reportedly killing another civilian, Ahmed Nimer Obeidi.

Medics also came under attack, with at least three doctors and two nurses injured by Israeli gunfire within the first two hours of the invasion. Israeli forces also besieged Al-Amal hospital near the camp and fired live ammunition from its vicinity while obstructing medics from reaching the injured. At the same time, residents described Israeli troops forcibly taking over civilian homes across the city and turning them into makeshift military positions.

By 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the Israeli military had designated the entire district of Jenin as a closed military zone, with active operations in at least 16 surrounding towns and villages.

Tuesday’s operation came just two days after the start of the “ceasefire” in Gaza, whose first phase is supposed to last for six weeks. Israeli ministers and media reports have suggested the military operations in Jenin and other areas of the West Bank are part of a deal Netanyahu made with his cabinet ahead of the ceasefire in Gaza.

On Tuesday, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel’s raid on Jenin is designed to “change the security situation” in the West Bank. “After Gaza and Lebanon, today, with God’s help, we have begun changing the security paradigm in Judea and Samaria as well, and [initiated] a campaign to eradicate terrorism in the region,” Smotrich said in a post on X. These operations, he added, were “part of the war goals that were added by the [security] cabinet on Friday, at the request of the Religious Zionism party,” referring to the cabinet talks over the ceasefire in Gaza last weekend. He also described Operation Iron Wall as part of a strategy to protect settlers.

In an interview on Israeli TV Channel 14, Smotrich elaborated further, saying the current raids on the West Bank would be “a completely different [kind] of operation.”

“It’s not longer about foiling [attacks], it’s no longer routine ongoing security maintenance — it’s a war aim, and when you are in war, you have a different set of tools [at your disposal],” Smotrich said. “There’s a very detailed decision that tasks the security apparatus to, call it ‘spread a blanket over,’ but in terms of defense and offense, you’ll see very shortly, god willing, very significant operations in the refugee camps,” he added.

The Jenin refugee camp has long been a stronghold of Palestinian armed resistance in the West Bank. It is home to the Jenin Brigade, a politically diverse militant group of mostly third-generation refugees who believe taking up arms is key to liberating Palestinian lands from Israeli occupation and annexation.

The Israeli military operation comes just days after the Palestinian Authority concluded a weeks-long raid on Jenin in one the longest and most lethal assaults by Palestinian security forces in recent memory, with at least 16 Palestinians killed, mostly civilians. Billed by the PA as a move to restore security in Jenin, residents said the real aim was to crush Palestinian armed resistance at the behest of Israel.

The Israeli military operation on Jenin comes amid a broader assault on Palestinian villages and towns across the West Bank. On the day the Gaza “ceasefire” went into effect, Israeli security forces raided several towns in the West Bank, closed down checkpoints, and set up “flying”—or new—checkpoints in other areas, while shutting down entrances to major cities, including Ramallah and al-Khalil (Hebron). Due to the Israeli lockdown, many of the 90 Palestinian captives who were released on Sunday in Ramallah were unable to return to their homes in the various towns and cities in the West Bank.

On Monday, the Israeli military raided the town of Azzun in eastern Qalqilya, arresting 64 Palestinians, including children. Footage posted online shows men and boys forced to lie face down in the street before being marched away in a long line. Over 90 Palestinians have been detained in the West Bank in the past 24 hours.

Israeli settlers have also attacked a number of towns and villages, torching Palestinians houses and vehicles, blocking roads and throwing stones. In Sebastia, Nablus, Israeli forces shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy.

In a statement on Monday, the UN Human Rights Office said it was “alarmed by a wave of renewed violence perpetrated by settlers and Israeli security forces in the Occupied West Bank, coinciding with the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages and detainees. This has been accompanied by increased restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement across the West Bank, including complete closure of some checkpoints and installation of new gates, effectively confining entire communities.”

On Tuesday, Hamas issued a statement calling on people to “mobilize and intensify confrontations” with Israeli forces in Jenin and blasting PA security forces for their conduct. “It is bewildering to witness the conduct of the Palestinian Authority’s forces, which withdrew from the surroundings of the Jenin camp simultaneously with the beginning of the occupation’s military operation,” the statement read. “This comes after a siege of over 48 days on the camp and the disruption of agreements with the resistance fighters to date, as well as their refusal to heed national calls to halt dangerous measures against the strugglers and resistance fighters.”

Meanwhile in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump reversed sanctions on a number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, issuing an executive order soon after his inauguration to lift measures imposed by the Biden administration. 

Trump also said he was not confident the Gaza ceasefire deal would hold. “That’s not our war, it’s their war. But I’m not confident,” he said from the Oval Office. “I looked at a picture of Gaza — Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is, it’s really, it’s got to be rebuilt in a different way,” he said, adding that Gaza was a “phenomenal location on the sea” and that “some beautiful things could be done with it.”

---

A guest post by Mariam Barghouti
Mariam Barghouti is a writer and a journalist based in the West Bank. She is a member of the Marie Colvin Journalist Network. Subscribe to Mariam