AVIV TEL Israel’s military announced that it has conducted a major operation in the occupied West Bank, only hours after President Donald Trump revoked US sanctions against far-right settlement organizations and individuals suspected of participating in violence against Palestinians in the region.
In an attack that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed was started to combat terrorism, Israeli forces advanced into the northern city of Jenin. At least seven individuals were murdered and numerous others were injured, according to local health officials.
It followed his military’s claim that Israeli citizens, some of whom were wearing masks, had attacked a Palestinian community on Monday night prior to his forces turning on them.
Executive Order 14115, which was introduced by the Biden administration in February, imposed penalties on anybody who jeopardized stability, security, and peace in the West Bank.
However, in a significant policy reversal, the White House website said Monday that Trump has lifted the restrictions, which prohibited Americans from doing business with Israeli settlements and organizations connected to them and frozen their assets in the United States.
Shortly after his inauguration ceremony, Trump signed a series of executive orders in the Oval Office, describing Gaza as a “phenomenal location.”
The decision to lift the sanctions was made just one day after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement that put an end to Israel’s 15-month military campaign in Gaza. Ninety Palestinian women and teenagers who were captured or imprisoned by Israel were exchanged for three Israeli women who were held prisoner by Hamas after phase one of the agreement started on Sunday.
Before then-President Joe Biden reinstated the long-standing American stance that the settlements are unlawful, Trump renounced it during his first term.
Ultranationalist Israeli leaders, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Justice Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who quit after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government decided to accept the ceasefire accord, applauded Trump’s reversal.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Smotrich referred to the penalties as “blatant foreign interference in the internal affairs of the State of Israel” and said that they had damaged ties between the US and Israel. Additionally, Ben-Gvir took to X to commend the redress of a wrong.
The Gaza Strip has received a lot of international attention throughout the 15-month conflict, which started on October 7, 2023, when Israeli officials claim that 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage in Hamas’ multipronged attacks on Israel, marking a significant escalation in a struggle that had lasted for decades.
According to health officials in the enclave, Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed around 47,000 Palestinians since then, however researchers estimate the death toll may be much higher.
According to a database maintained by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, 253 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank in the year preceding the Hamas attacks.
Since then, settlers’ violence and Israeli military actions have increased, and according to the database, 828 Palestinians have been killed in the region in the months preceding January 15.
According to the statistics, 33 Israelis were slain in the West Bank in the year preceding the Hamas strikes. It indicates that 28 people have been slain between that date and January 6, the last time it was updated.
The Israeli military said in a statement that scores of Israeli citizens, some wearing masks, attacked the Palestinian town of Al-Funduq within hours of the White House’s decision on Monday. According to the statement, they committed damage, started riots, and set property on fire there.
The statement also said that once troops were sent to the area, Israelis attacked them, some of whom threw rocks.
According to the statement, the Military Police Criminal inquiry Division and the Department of Internal Police Investigations had launched a joint inquiry into the event.
The IDF directed NBC News to the Israel Police on Tuesday when asked if anyone involved had been taken into custody and charged. A request for comment was not immediately answered by the police agency.
In a statement on Tuesday, Netanyahu referred to the offensive as the “Iron Wall” and stated that the IDF, police, and the Shin Bet, the nation’s domestic security agency, had begun a “extensive and significant military operation to defeat terrorism in Jenin, a city in the north of the West Bank.”
According to a statement from Palestinian health officials, the operation resulted in at least seven fatalities and approximately 35 injuries.
In a separate statement, Smotrich said the operation will help shift the security impression of the area, referring to it as Judea and Samaria, the biblical designations for the West Bank.
The operation began after the UN Human Rights Office expressed concern in a statement on Monday over a surge of new violence in the Occupied West Bank committed by Israeli security personnel and settlers.
Alongside this, there have been more limitations placed on Palestinians’ freedom of movement throughout the West Bank, including the installation of new gates and the total closure of some checkpoints, which have effectively confined entire villages, the statement continued.
Since the 1967 Middle East conflict, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, establishing and growing Jewish communities there that the majority of nations believe to be unlawful—a claim Israel denies.