Israeli tanks move into occupied West Bank for first time since 2002

Israeli tanks moved into the occupied West Bank on Sunday for the first time in decades in what Palestinian authorities called a “dangerous escalation,” after the defense minister said troops will remain in parts of the territory for a year and tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled cannot return.

Associated Press journalists saw several tanks move along unpaved tracks into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel.

Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the northern West Bank on Jan. 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold — and has expanded it to nearby areas.

Palestinians view such raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule. The deadly raids have caused destruction in urban areas.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “increase the intensity of the activity to thwart terrorism” in all refugee camps in the West Bank.

“We will not allow the return of residents, and we will not allow terrorism to return and grow,” he said.

Earlier, Katz said he had instructed the military to prepare for “an extended stay” in some of the West Bank’s urban refugee camps, from where he said about 40,000 Palestinians have fled, leaving the areas “emptied of residents.” That figure was confirmed by the United Nations.

The camps are home to descendants of Palestinians who fled or were forced to flee during wars with Israel decades ago. It was not clear how long Palestinians would be prevented from returning. Katz said the troops would stay “for the coming year.” Netanyahu said they would stay “as long as needed.”

Tanks were last deployed in the territory in 2002, when Israel fought a deadly Palestinian uprising.

The Palestinian foreign ministry called the Israeli moves “a dangerous escalation of the situation in the West Bank,” and urged the international community in a statement to intervene in what it termed Israel’s illegal “aggression.”

“Even if they stay, we will return to the camp at the end,” said Mohamed al-Sadi, one of those displaced from Jenin. “This camp is ours. We have no other place to go.”

Under interim peace agreements from the early 1990s, Israel maintains control over large parts of the West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority administers other areas. Israel regularly sends troops into Palestinian zones but typically withdraws them once missions are completed.

The U.N. says the current Israeli military operation is the longest since the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s.

Violence has surged in the West Bank throughout the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Israel has carried out raids, but with fighting in Gaza and Lebanon on hold, Netanyahu has been under pressure from far-right governing partners to crack down on militancy in the West Bank.

More than 800 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the war in Gaza erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, with a Hamas attack on southern Israel. Israel says most were militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions as well as people not involved in confrontations have also been killed. In the most recent operation, a pregnant Palestinian woman was killed.

Jewish settlers also have carried out rampages in Palestinian areas in the territory. There has also been a spike in Palestinian attacks emanating from the West Bank. On Thursday, blasts rocked three empty buses in Israel in what police view as a suspected militant attack.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians want all three territories for their future independent state.

The West Bank raids come at a sensitive time, as the truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza remains tenuous.

With a week left in the ceasefire’s first phase, Israel and Hamas do not appear to have begun negotiations on its second one. The truce’s collapse could lead to renewed fighting in Gaza, where Netanyahu said 63 hostages remain, including the remains of a soldier captured in 2014.

“We are ready to return to intense fighting at any moment,” Netanyahu said Sunday.

The U.S. special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told CNN on Sunday he expects the second phase to go forward, adding: “We have to get an extension of phase one and so I’ll be going into the region this week, probably Wednesday, to negotiate that.” He told CBS he will visit Qatar, Egypt, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Israel said early Sunday it was delaying the latest release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners until it gets assurances that Hamas stops what Israel calls “humiliating” handovers of hostages.

The 620 prisoners should have been released shortly after six Israeli hostages in Gaza were freed Saturday — five of them in staged ceremonies criticized by the U.S. and Red Cross as cruel.

Palestinian family members were distraught. “What have the prisoners done? We don’t know what happened. They killed our joy,” said one mother, Najah Zaqqot.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu faced new criticism over the war while speaking at a military graduation. As he held up a picture of Shiri Bibas and her young boys, Ariel and Kfir, whose remains were returned from Gaza last week, to demonstrate “what we are fighting against,” audience members called out “Shame!” and “Why didn’t you save them?” The prime minister didn’t react.