(Bloomberg) — Israel has launched a large-scale military operation in the West Bank to combat what it called terrorist activity, the latest round of hostilities in Palestinian territory since the war in Gaza began.
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According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, nine Palestinians were killed and 11 wounded. The ministry also reported that Israeli soldiers blocked access to hospitals and destroyed infrastructure in the cities of Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarem.
The Israel Defense Forces said the raids, which began Wednesday morning, were aimed at targeting militants. They said they killed five militants, including one who was released from prison in November as part of an exchange for hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli forces have stepped up operations in the West Bank since Hamas invaded southern Israel from Gaza, a separate Palestinian territory, on October 7.
An Israeli military spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said Iran is smuggling weapons into the West Bank as part of its effort to undermine the Jewish state, and this week’s operation is a preemptive strike. His comments about Iran — and similar comments by Foreign Minister Israel Katz about X — could not be confirmed.
Iran sponsors Hamas and other regional militant groups fighting Israel, including Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are considered terrorist organizations by the United States.
The IDF move “will not bring security and stability to anyone, and everyone will pay the price,” said Nabil Abu Rudineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian presidency based in the West Bank.
Hamas said in a statement on Telegram that “resistance actions in the West Bank are escalating.”
“This situation can only be addressed through open conflict,” it said, calling for mass protests in the West Bank and elsewhere in the Arab world in support of Hamas.
The West Bank has seen a significant increase in violence since the beginning of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, with more IDF operations taking place alongside fighting between Palestinians and Jewish settlers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government has approved settlement expansion in recent months, increasing tensions.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health says more than 650 Palestinians have been killed and 5,400 wounded in the West Bank since October before this week’s operation. Movement restrictions have further exacerbated the problems in the area, limiting access to essential health services.
Shoshani, the IDF spokesman, said there has been a spike in anti-Israel violence in the northern part of the West Bank, with dozens of shootings and attacks occurring there in the past year. He said the groups involved were Hamas and others funded by Iran.
The economic situation in the West Bank has deteriorated dramatically since October. More than 178,000 Palestinian workers have lost their jobs after being denied entry to Israel for security reasons. Many of them worked on Israeli construction sites.
Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage in their Oct. 7 attack. Israel’s subsequent offensive has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry there.
–With assistance from Julius Domoney.
(Updates with more details.)
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