Israeli security forces killed at least 10 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday as they launched what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "large-scale and significant military operation."
The action, launched a day after U.S. President Donald Trump declared he was lifting sanctions on ultranationalist Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinian villages, was announced by Netanyahu as a new offensive against Iranian-backed armed groups.
"We are acting systematically and resolutely against the Iranian axis wherever it extends its arms – in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Judea and Samaria," Netanyahu said, using the Israeli terms for the occupied West Bank.
The move into Jenin, where the Israeli army has carried out multiple raids and large-scale incursions over recent years, comes only two days after the start of a cease-fire in Gaza.
The military said soldiers, police and intelligence services had begun a counterterrorism operation in Jenin. It follows a weekslong operation by Palestinian security forces in the West Bank to reassert control in the adjacent refugee camp, which has a major presence of resistance groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Gaza-based Hamas has over recent years expanded its presence in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority, dominated by the rival Fatah faction, exercises limited governance. On Tuesday, Hamas called on Palestinians in the territory to escalate fighting against Israel.
As the operation began, Palestinian security forces withdrew from the refugee camp and the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard in mobile phone footage shared on social media.
Palestinian health services said at least 10 Palestinians were killed and 35 wounded in the Israeli raid, which continued well into the night. A week earlier, an Israeli air strike in the Jenin refugee camp killed at least three Palestinians and wounded scores more.
Since the October 2023 start of the war in Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis have been killed in the occupied West Bank and Israel and thousands of Palestinians have been detained in regular Israeli raids.
