The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it had begun an operation it described as an anti-terror operation in Jenin, a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank that has become a hub for militants.
It gave no further details, but the new attack comes amid heightened tensions in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority, which usually leaves security in the area to Israel, has been conducting an unusual campaign of attacks on militants in the area occupied by Israel.
On Monday night, Jewish activists stormed several Palestinian neighborhoods in the West Bank, hours after President Trump lifted sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on dozens of Israelis and settler groups accused of violence against Palestinians.
The cancellation of these sanctions is one of the long list of laws signed by Mr. Trump immediately after his inauguration. Palestinian officials have strongly condemned the move, saying it could incite further violence. Hard-line members of Israel’s right-wing government and leaders of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank have been calling for the sanctions, which then-President Biden imposed under an executive order he signed nearly a year ago, to be lifted.
Some of the leaders of the settlers have developed a close relationship with the collaborators with Mr. Trump in previous years, including Mike Huckabee, who was chosen by Mr. Trump as the next ambassador to Jerusalem.
The lifting of sanctions coincided with a second straight night of violence in the West Bank as cheap settlers protested a ceasefire in Gaza, which began on Sunday and brought a period of calm after 15 months of war led by Oct. . 7, 2023, a Hamas-led attack on Israel. The attackers set fire to vehicles and property, according to Palestinian officials and the Israeli military.
Far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and their allies oppose the ceasefire, the first phase of which calls for a six-week peace deal and the weekly exchange of 33 hostages held in Gaza by hundreds of people. Palestinian prisoners.
The details of the second phase of the agreement have not yet been negotiated, but it calls for a temporary ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Violence in the West Bank escalated after the October 7 attack. The growing power of militants in West Bank cities such as Jenin and Tulkarm has triggered a deadly cycle of Israeli airstrikes and drone strikes, which have devastated Palestinian neighborhoods.
Israeli soldiers seized neighborhoods for days in search of suspected rebels as bulldozers chewed up the streets looking for explosives. The Israeli army says its soldiers were forced to carry out a deadly attack to stop the terrorists.
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