Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that the Israeli military has forcibly displaced 40,000 Palestinians in the northern occupied West Bank and that they couldn’t return home as the IDF will be operating in the area over the next year, raising fears of a new ethnic cleansing campaign.
The Israeli military launched the current operation in the West Bank, dubbed “Iron Wall,” on January 21. It has been focused on the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarm but has spread elsewhere in the occupied territory. In a new escalation, Israeli tanks entered the West Bank on Sunday for the first time since 2002.
Katz said in a statement that he ordered the Israeli military “to prepare for an extended stay in the camps that have been cleared for the coming year, and not to allow residents to return.”
“We will not return to the reality that existed in the past. We will continue to clear refugee camps and other terrorist centers in order to dismantle the [militant] battalions and terrorist infrastructures of extremist Islam that were built,” Katz added.
The tank deployment into the West Bank came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an escalation in the occupied territory following the bombing of empty buses in the Israeli city of Bat Yam near Tel Aviv. Israeli officials blamed West Bank resistance groups for the attack, and a note was left that said “revenge from Tulkarm.” However, two Jewish Israelis were arrested over their alleged involvement in the bombing.
According to the UN, more than 50 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the new operation was launched last month. The dead include many civilians and children as the Israeli military expanded an “open fire order” in the occupied territory.
On Friday, two Palestinian children were killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank. Rimas al-Amouri, a 13-year-old girl, was shot in the back while standing in the courtyard of her family home in Jenin.
Ayman Nassar Taysir al-Hemouni, a 12-year-old boy, was also shot in the back while standing near the home of a family member in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Both al-Hemouni and al-Amouri were shot by Israeli troops who were inside armored vehicles.
Israel’s escalations in the West Bank have also involved the destruction of infrastructure, including roads and homes, mirroring the strategies of the IDF in Gaza. When “Iron Wall” was first launched, Katz said the Israeli military was applying “lessons” that it had learned in Gaza.
