Israel withdraws from Jenin but denies end of offensive in West Bank

Israeli forces have withdrawn from Jenin after a 10-day offensive, but the military denied it would end its operation in the occupied West Bank.

In the offensive, in which at least 39 Palestinians have been killed so far, soldiers, supported by armored vehicles and bulldozers, attacked the city and the adjacent refugee camp, forcing many residents to flee.

Tensions in the West Bank escalated further on Friday when a US citizen was reportedly shot dead by Israeli troops near Nablus.

On Friday, Palestinians began returning to their homes in Jenin, and those trapped by the offensive were able to venture outside for the first time in over a week.

A resident of the refugee camp said the Israelis withdrew early in the morning.

“We, my children and my husband’s family did not leave the house for ten days during this operation,” she told Middle East Eye.

After the attack on the camp, residents were without electricity and water for days.

“We didn’t leave the house for ten days during the operation, me, my children and my husband’s family.”

– Residents of Jenin camp

When they finally went outside on Friday, the resident said it looked like “a big bomb had fallen.”

“Many houses are destroyed, and there are other houses that they used as military bases, but they destroyed the furniture and wreaked havoc in the houses,” she said.

“We heard explosions day and night for ten days and couldn't know where they were coming from. We had no internet or communications, so we couldn't figure out where they were coming from.”

Israel began its operation on August 28, targeting towns and villages throughout the West Bank.

The army said it had killed 14 Palestinian fighters in Jenin, including a Hamas commander, and arrested 30 wanted people.

A 16-year-old girl was among those shot dead after Israeli soldiers surrounded a neighboring house outside the gates of Jenin on Tuesday.

Israel said on Friday that it would continue its operations in Jenin until its “objectives are achieved.”

Foreign criticism

Israel's actions in the West Bank, which coincide with ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip, have drawn criticism from some of its traditional allies.

During a visit to Israel on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock criticized the aggressive statements made by Israeli politicians about the West Bank.

“If members of the Israeli government themselves demand the same treatment in the West Bank as in Gaza, this is precisely what poses an acute threat to Israel’s security,” Baerbock said during a press conference.

“They are making it uninhabitable for us, so we are leaving. But we will not leave our land and our homes.”

– Residents of Jenin camp

Her comments were in response to calls by a number of Israeli government officials that the West Bank could face a similar fate to Gaza.

Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel's far-right national security minister, said in a post on X on Friday that he had called on Netanyahu to make the defeat of Hamas “and other terrorist organizations” in the West Bank one of the goals of the war in Gaza.

He said it was necessary to prevent another attack like the one on October 7, in which more than 1,100 people were killed in a Hamas-led attack on Israel.

A report published in Israel Hayom on Tuesday suggested that the military currently views the occupied West Bank as the “second most important front” after the war in Gaza.

Since October 7, 691 Palestinians have been killed in attacks by the Israeli army and settlers in the West Bank.

The Israel Hayom report suggested that another series of attacks was imminent and that operations would continue “for the foreseeable future.”

Baerbock warned: “Anyone who attacks people, drives them out of their homes or even kills them must be held accountable and severely punished.”

She also warned Israelis against further illegal settlement construction in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967 and is now home to more than 700,000 Jewish settlers.

“In my view, the Israeli government could regain lost international trust by, as a first step, stopping the current settlement projects,” she said.

“Expansion of resistance”

Israel said on Thursday it had killed six Islamic Jihad fighters in a drone strike in the town of Tubas and a nearby refugee camp in the West Bank.

The military operation in the West Bank involved hundreds of Israeli soldiers, police and intelligence officers, supported by helicopters, drones and armored vehicles.

Ten people were killed last week in Tubas, a town in the northern Jordan Valley.

Hamas has called for an “expansion of the resistance” in the West Bank, which is governed by the Palestinian Authority, which in turn is dominated by Hamas' rival Fatah.

“Our people … throughout the West Bank should work to strengthen and join the resistance, because the occupation's plan is to attack every house, every village and every street,” said senior Hamas official Abdulrahman Shadid.

It is an “ethical, national and religious obligation,” he said, adding that the Palestinian people “will not give in to the enemy.”

The refugee camps in the West Bank are mainly home to Palestinians who were expelled from their homes in 1948 during the Nakba, which led to the founding of Israel, and their descendants.

The Jenin camp resident, whose family was expelled from the coastal city of Jaffa in 1948, said she had witnessed many repeated Israeli operations and knew mothers who had lost three or four children but were not discouraged.

“I will never leave the refugee camp. I know that one of the goals of the [Israeli army] is to force people to leave, to emigrate,” she said.

“They are making it uninhabitable for us, so we are leaving. But we don't want to leave our land and our homes. How can they expect people to just be driven off their land and then forgotten about it?”