Israel intensifies military attack on occupied West Bank for second time | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

Several Palestinians were killed or injured in attacks across the area that drew strong criticism around the world.

The Israeli military called in reinforcements as it escalated its assault on the occupied West Bank for the second day in a row.

At least twelve people have been killed throughout the area since the operation began, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Thursday.

At least 20 Palestinians, including children, have been arrested by Israeli security forces so far, the Commission for Prisoners' and Former Prisoners' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners' Association said. They warned on Thursday that the number could rise as more raids continue.

In the Nur Shams refugee camp, the Israeli military claimed on Thursday that it had killed five Palestinian fighters who were hiding in a mosque.

Among them was Tulkarem Battalion commander Mohamed Jaber, also known as Abu Shuja'a, it said. The military said Abu Shuja'a ordered the shooting and killing of an Israeli in Qalqilya in June.

The Israeli attacks began on Wednesday in the areas of Jenin, Tulkarem and the Far'a refugee camp near Tubas. It was the largest attack in 20 years. The military says they were “armed terrorists who posed a threat to the security forces”.

Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Tulkarem, said that while the Israeli military launches daily attacks on the area, “this attack is on a completely different scale” as its forces “raided four refugee camps simultaneously.”

“There is great fear and concern among the residents,” she said.

According to Wafa, operations expanded overnight to southern Bethlehem, the Arroub refugee camp, northern Hebron, the city of Nablus and the village of Nabi Saleh northwest of Ramallah.

Ibrahim also reported that the escalation was “no surprise” to Palestinians, “as they have witnessed the attacks intensifying and expanding on a daily basis since October 7.”

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 136 Palestinians have been killed and 41 injured in Israeli air strikes since the start of Israel's war on Gaza on October 7.

All but one of the killings occurred in the northern governorates of the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, Amnesty International condemned Israel's military attack as a “frightening escalation of lethal violence.”

“These operations are likely to lead to an increase in forced displacement, destruction of critical infrastructure and collective punishment, which are key pillars of Israel’s apartheid system against Palestinians and its illegal occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had already hinted at the forced relocation of Palestinians on Wednesday.

On X, he wrote that the threat posed by “terrorist infrastructures” in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps must be countered by all necessary means, including “intense fighting” and “in some cases … allowing the population to temporarily evacuate from one neighborhood to another within the refugee camp.”

Israel's temporary evacuation orders have been applied repeatedly in the Gaza Strip, leading to the displacement of tens of thousands of people into so-called “humanitarian safe zones,” which were then attacked by the military.

Palestinian human rights groups, including the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Al-Haq and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, warned on Thursday of Israeli tactics in the area that were similar to those used in “Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza.”