Israeli security forces and settler groups have been launching attacks against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on Sunday.

Settler attacks broke out immediately after the ceasefire began, with members of the Israeli far-right reportedly targeting some villages where there are homes for released Palestinian women and children. Other Palestinian homes appear to have been targeted randomly.

Separately, the Israeli army launched an operation dubbed “The Iron Wall” in the city of Jenin and the adjacent Jenin refugee camp.

The military attack comes after A The raid lasted weeks By Palestinian Authority security forces in the Jenin refugee camp, they targeted local Palestinian fighters in what they described as an attempt to restore law and order, but which many Palestinians see as a campaign of repression against independent Palestinian armed groups resisting Israeli occupation.

How many people were killed?

The attacks launched by the Israeli army in Jenin led to the deaths of 12 people – 10 during raids across Jenin Governorate on Tuesday and two on Wednesday night.

It remains unclear how many civilians were killed on Tuesday, but the Palestinian Authority statement said that Israeli forces “opened fire on civilians and security forces, wounding several civilians and a number of security personnel.” The Palestinian Authority added that at least 35 people were injured.

The deaths occurred on Wednesday in the town of Burqin, west of Jenin. The Palestinian Al-Quds Al-Youm news network reported that Muhammad Abu Al-Asaad and Qutaiba Al-Shalabi were martyred in an “armed clash with the occupation forces.” [Israeli] Occupation forces.” Hamas’ armed wing said the two men were members of Hamas, although the Israeli military said they belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.

Meanwhile, at least 21 Palestinians have been injured in attacks carried out by Israeli settlers across the West Bank since the ceasefire began on Sunday.

Where does violence occur?

Settler violence appears to be concentrated on at least six villages: Sinjil, Turmus Ayya, Ein Sinya, Al-Lubban Al-Ashiqiya (near Ramallah), Al-Funduq and Jinsafut (both near Nablus). According to The Guardian, the six villages were identified as homes for women and children who were released by the Israeli government as part of a ceasefire.

In the city of Jenin, the army surrounded the government-run hospital and nearby refugee camp, and reportedly ordered the evacuation of hundreds. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the operation in Jenin as a “terrorist operation.” “Transformation…a security strategy”. He said that this effort was part of the Israeli military plan for the occupied West Bank and was “the first lesson in the method of repeated raids on Gaza.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that the Israeli occupation forces are preventing it from reaching the wounded and the bodies of the dead.

Dozens of checkpoints and military checkpoints They were set up throughout the West Bank, sending civilians back for six to eight hours.

Has Jenin been targeted before?

I have.

Israel has Iran has long been accused of supplying armed groups in Jenin with weapons And the refugee camp specifically. Jenin has long been a bastion of Palestinian resistance, and the growth of an independent armed group, the Jenin Brigades, has been of particular concern to Israel.

In December, the Palestinian Authority launched what was said to be the largest and most violent confrontation with armed groups in the West Bank since their expulsion from Gaza by Hamas in 2007.

Many analysts believed it was It positions itself as the natural manager of the post-war Gaza StripThe Palestinian Authority has been accused of replicating methods used by Israeli forces in previous attacks on Jenin and elsewhere: surrounding the camp with armored personnel carriers, shooting indiscriminately at civilians, detaining and ill-treating youth without trial, and cutting off water and electricity supplies to Palestinians. Civilians inside.

Before the attack launched by the Palestinian Authority, there were numerous attacks on Jenin by the Israeli army. Al Jazeera correspondent Sherine Abu Oqla Israel killed him in one of these raidsin May 2022.

Israel targeted the city of Jenin in July 2023, before the outbreak of the war on Gaza. During this attack, the IDF 12 people were killed and around injured 100, one of the largest casualties since the infamous military operation in 2002, during the Second Intifada. Fifty-two PalestiniansHalf of them were civilians, and 23 of the attacking Israeli soldiers were killed during that attack.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing war crimes during the 2002 attack.

Is this latest violence related to the Gaza ceasefire?

Yes and no.

While the bulk of the Israeli army was occupying Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli settlers launched the deadliest year of attacks on record inside the West Bank.

“The ceasefire was not enough for the Israelis,” said Murad Jadallah of the Al-Haq human rights organization from Ramallah in the West Bank. He added, “The hostage deal was not the victory they promised,” noting that the consequences of clear disappointment after the killing of more than 47,000 people are now taking place throughout the West Bank and in Jenin.

In general, according to Statistics from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)Israeli settlers carried out at least 1,860 attacks between October 7, 2023 – the day of the Hamas-led attack on Israel – and December 31, 2024.

“This is not what a ceasefire looks like,” Shai Parnes of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem told Al Jazeera. “Since Israel and Hamas announced a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the agreement to release hostages and prisoners, Israel has intensified its violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.”

Barnes added: “Instead of a ceasefire against the Palestinians, Israel’s actions show that it has no intention of doing so. Instead, it is merely shifting its focus from Gaza to other areas it controls in the West Bank.”

What are Israel’s plans for the West Bank?

Factors, including the far-right makeup of the Israeli government and the rise to power of US President Donald Trump’s overwhelmingly pro-Israel administration, portend difficult times ahead for the West Bank.

While Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, provided unequivocal support for Israel’s war on Gaza, which… So far, 47,283 people have been killedHowever, his administration expressed some concern about unrestrained settler violence within the West Bank, which the Biden administration saw as potentially destabilizing the region.

But Trump’s lifting of the Biden administration’s sanctions on settlers offered a possible early glimpse of what many within Israel’s far right had been hoping for — a more lenient US policy toward settler ambitions in the West Bank.

Inside Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu found himself facing a right-wing insurgency, with ultra-nationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir resigning from Netanyahu’s coalition government over the ceasefire agreement. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who made no secret of his ambition to annex the West Bank, remained in the government, but promised to resign if the ceasefire in Gaza led to the end of the war.

“Smotrich has more power and influence than ever before,” Jadallah said of negotiations to keep Smotrich on the board.

“He ultimately wants to marginalize the Israeli civil administration and run the West Bank exclusively by settlers,” Jadallah added, explaining his view on the early steps toward Israel’s full annexation of the West Bank.

Evidence of this new approach to the West Bank and its settlers was already clear before the ceasefire and the Trump presidency.

On Friday, Katz announced that all remaining settlers held in administrative detention, a process in which individuals are detained indefinitely without charges, would be released. Administrative detention has been used largely against Palestinian detainees, although it has previously been applied to some Israelis.

Upon the settlers’ release, Katz wrote in a statement that “it is better for the families of Jewish settlers to be happy than the families of released terrorists,” referring to the Palestinian women and children whom Israel released on Sunday as part of the ceasefire agreement. .