ISRAELI TANKS IN WEST BANK - FIRST TIME IN 2 DECADES

Unsurprisingly, the Israeli military has escalated its operations in the occupied West Bank, deploying tanks to the region for the first time in more than two decades. The operation has displaced Palestinians from Jenin, Tulkarem, and surrounding areas, with homes destroyed and access to necessities like clean water and medical care disrupted, in what Reuters reports as a 'Gaza-style clearance.’

Basheer Matahen, Jenin's municipality spokesperson, said the invasion had displaced over 40,000 people. That includes refugees in the Jenin camp, considered almost empty now. Matahen called it 'a repeat of what happened in Jabalia,' in October 2024 in northern Gaza.  

The settler-colonial state's violence in the West Bank is not new. Israel displaced the population of the West Bank in 1948 and has occupied it since 1967. The West Bank is the larger of the two occupied Palestinian territories and has been central to Israeli settlers’ construction of towns.

For decades, Israel has set up settlements illegal under international law in the West Bank, and this renewed violence follows the 7 October 2023 escalation, which k*lled an estimated 186,000 Palestinians in Gaza, as reported by the Lancet medical journal.

Sources

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/24/israel-deploys-tanks-as-assault-on-occupied-west-bank-intensifies 

https://www.wdsu.com/article/israeli-tanks-west-bank-escalation/63902055 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/8/gaza-toll-could-exceed-186000-lancet-study-says

https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-153-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem 

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/24/middleeast/israel-jenin-west-bank-explainer-intl/index.html 

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2025-02-24/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israel-is-already-doing-in-the-west-bank-what-it-threatens-to-do-in-gaza/00000195-36af-d641-abfd-b7ef29990000 

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/24/middleeast/israel-jenin-west-bank-explainer-intl/index.html 

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/1/19/timeline-the-path-to-the-israel-hamas-ceasefire-deal-in-gaza 

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/west-bank-palestinians-fear-gaza-style-clearance-israel-squeezes-jenin-camp-2025-02-24/

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges