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2025 Israeli military operation in the West Bank
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On 21 January 2025, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began a large-scale military operation, which it named "Iron Wall"[d],[39][40][41] against Palestinian militants in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Described as an invasion by the Associated Press,[42] Israel's operation initially only targeted the Jenin Brigades, a local Palestinian militia in Jenin.[43] On the fourth day, the IDF expanded its activities to Tulkarm and other Palestinian cities and towns. Iron Wall marks a strategically distinct and more aggressive approach against West Bank militancy compared to previous Israeli operations,[44][45] and also marks the first time that the Palestinian Authority (PA)[e] directly participated in an Israeli military operation.[46][13][29]
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The IDF has stated that the aims of Iron Wall are to preserve its "freedom of action” in the West Bank, to neutralize militant infrastructure, and to eliminate imminent threats.[47][48] Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said the operation is an action against the "Iranian axis", referring to the Iranian support of West Bank militants, and Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said it marks the start of a campaign to protect Israeli settlements in the occupied region.[3] Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said it marks a shift in the IDF's security plan in the West Bank and was “the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza”,[49] later clarifying that Israeli forces planned to maintain a long-term military presence in Jenin beyond the operation's conclusion.[50]
Compared to Israel's last West Bank operation in 2024, Iron Wall has been yielding operational success, according to media sources.[51][52][1][53] Israeli forces have seized control of the Jenin refugee camp, clearing it from militants,[1] and have destroyed Nur Shams and the refugee camp in Tulkarm.[53] More than 40,000 Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes due to the operation,[51] with the rate of displacement being the highest since the 1967 Six-Day War.[54]
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Background
The Israeli operation followed several related developments in the region. On 19 January, the Gaza war ceasefire was implemented, halting fighting in the Gaza Strip.[f] On 20 January, American president Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time and later issued an executive order rescinding sanctions against some Israeli settlers and settler groups accused of anti-Palestinian violence in the West Bank. That same day, a mob of Israeli settlers raided several Palestinian towns in protest against the Gaza ceasefire, until being dispersed by the IDF.[55]
PA operation in Jenin
In Jenin specifically, the security services of the PA had been conducting an operation against the Jenin Brigades since December 2024. Both sides signed a truce on 17 January 2025, but the deal fell through and fighting resumed two days later.[56][57][58] The IDF initiated its raid due to the PA's operation eventually being deemed insufficient, according to The Jerusalem Post.[48]
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Timeline
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21 January
The raid began with drone strikes on militant infrastructure, and large numbers of IDF troops, including special forces, as well as Shin Bet agents and Border Police officers were deployed into Jenin.[47] Palestinian sources also reported the participation of Israeli warplanes and armored vehicles, including bulldozers.[32]
Palestinian Authority forces withdrew from their positions in Jenin as the IDF entered the city.[43][3][28] According to the PA, the Israeli operation caught them by surprise and members of its forces were killed by Israeli fire.[44][28] According to Israel, however, the PA was informed of the decision to enter Jenin beforehand, and PA forces withdrew to allow the IDF to proceed with their raid.[27]
The IDF encircled Al-Amal, a local private hospital.[55]
22 January
According to the mayor of Jenin, Israeli forces released as many as 600 people that had been detained overnight inside the Jenin Governmental Hospital.[59]
Palestinian Authority forces stormed the Al-Razi hospital and arrested a man said to be a Jenin Brigades militant, marking the first ever time that PA forces have participated in an Israeli raid in the West Bank.[13]
In Burqin, near Jenin, Israeli forces killed two militants that had carried out an attack against Israelis earlier in the month.[60]
23 January
Hundreds of Palestinians from the Jenin camp began leaving their homes after Israeli forces issued an evacuation order.[61]
PA forces arrested the Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed al-Atrash, who was attempting to cover the Israeli raid on Jenin.[62]
24 January
Israeli forces blocked four main entrances to Jenin with earth mounds, preventing entry and exit, and set fire to residences in the Jenin refugee camp. In Yabad, west of Jenin, PA forces arrested and beat up a number of militants.[29]
Joint Israeli–PA raids were reported in Tulkarm, Ramallah, Hebron and Qalqilya.[29]
26 January
The IDF reported it had destroyed a bomb-making laboratory in Jenin.[63]
27 January
The Iron Wall operation officially expanded to Tulkarm Governorate.[64][41] The Israeli Air Force struck and killed Tulkarm's local Hamas commander and another militant in the Nur Shams refugee camp, and fighting broke out in Tulkarm between militants and Israeli forces on the ground.[64]
29 January
Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said that Israeli forces planned to remain in Jenin indefinitely, even after the operation is concluded. This would mark the first time since the Second Intifada that Israeli forces are stationed in a Palestinian city for an extended period of time.[50]
1 February
Israeli forces raided Nablus and the adjacent Balata refugee camp.[65]
2 February
The IDF conducted a series of massive detonations in Jenin, stating it destroyed 23 buildings being used as "militant infrastructure".[66][67]
Israeli forces expanded their operation into Tammun, closing the main road in the town.[68][69]
3 February
The governor of Tulkarm Governorate, Abdullah Kamil, reported that half of the population of Tulkarm fled and that hospitals and residences were being attacked by Israeli forces.[70]
4 February
A Palestinian gunman attacked an Israeli checkpoint in the village of Tayasir, north of Tubas, killing two IDF soldiers and wounding another eight.[24][71]
PA forces clashed with militants in eastern Jenin.[72]
9 February
Israeli forces surrounded and attacked the Nur Shams camp.[73] The Tulkarm Brigade said it successfully ambushed a group of IDF soldiers inside the camp.[74]
18 February
Israeli forces demolished more than a dozen apartment buildings inside the Tulkarm refugee camp.[75]
20 February
Three empty Israeli buses exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv; no one was harmed. Israeli police commander Haim Sargarof said the devices used to set off the blasts were similar to those used by West Bank militants. One of the unexploded mechanisms carried a message saying "Revenge from Tulkarm"; the Tulkarm Brigade released a statement that said "Revenge for the martyrs will not be forgotten as long as the occupier sits on our land", but did not explicitly claim responsibility for the attack.[76] The Shin Bet said that the attack was directed by Iran and carried out by Hamas.[77]
21 February
Following the bus bombings, Netanyahu ordered an intensification of the operation in the West Bank, and the IDF said it would deploy three more battalions to the region.[78]
23 February
The IDF deployed three Merkava tanks from the 188th Armored Brigade to Jenin, marking the first time since Operation Defensive Shield that Israeli tanks operated in the West Bank.[79]
4 March
The IDF said they killed Aysar al-Saadi, a Hamas commander in Jenin, in a shootout.[80]
6 March
The IDF rescued 10 Indian workers who had been forcibly held by Palestinians in the village of al-Zaayem for over a month; the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority reported that the workers had traveled to Israel for construction jobs but were lured to the village with false promises of employment by Palestinians, who took their passports to attempt illegal entry into Israel.[81]
7 March
The IDF targeted and damaged six mosques in Nablus, including the historical landmark An-Nasr Mosque, which was partially burned. Local officials condemned the attacks.[82]
8 March
Militants targeted an Israeli civilian vehicle traveling near Nabi Ilyas with Molotov cocktails.[83]
10 March
In Jenin, PA forces killed the prominent Jenin Brigades militant Abdul Rahman Abu Al-Muna.[84]
12 March
A militant shot and injured an 18-year-old Israeli near the Ariel settlement.[85][86] Hamas claimed responsibility and said that it was a response to Israeli military actions in the West Bank.[87]
21 March
Near the Dolev settlement, a militant carried out a shooting attack targeting an Israeli bus and a Magen David Adom ambulance, after which he engaged in an hours-long exchange of fire with the IDF; eventually, he was killed with a helicopter strike. The attacks resulted in several casualties.[88]
2 April
The IDF and the Shin Bet released a joint statement reporting a significant decrease in militant attacks in the West Bank during Ramadan 2025, compared to Ramadan 2024, and credited the decline to the Iron Wall operation.[89]
The IDF raided the Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, and distributed leaflets warning residents that they could be displaced like the Palestinians in the northern West Bank.[90]
9 April
The IDF began a large-scale raid of the Balata camp.[91]
20 April
A Palestinian gunman opened fire at Israeli soldiers outside the Homesh outpost and was killed by return fire. No injuries among the Israelis were reported. Hamas applauded the shooting but did not explicitly take responsibility.[92][93]
24 April
The IDF, Shin Bet, and the Israeli Border Police conducted a joint raid in the Balata camp to arrest the head of a militant cell and another operative. During the raid, the Israeli forces fired on Palestinian rioters that had confronted them.[94]
30 April
Two IDF reservists were injured by a bomb attack near the town of Beita southeast of Nablus.[95]
7 May
A gunman opened fire on Israeli forces at the Reihan checkpoint, causing injuries. The same day, in Hebron, another militant attempted a car-ramming attack against IDF troops and then began stabbing soldiers.[96] The combined attacks injured three soldiers in total.[97][98]
9 May
IDF troops operating in Nablus killed Nour Abdel Karim al-Bitawi, the commander of the Jenin Brigades.[99][100]
13 May
PA forces killed two Palestinians, a man in the Far'a refugee camp in Tubas and an elderly man in eastern Jenin. Both victims were similarly shot in the head while in their cars. A young girl was also injured by shrapnel resulting from the shooting. In response, Hamas condemned the killings and accused the PA of "unpatriotic practices."[101]
14 May
A gunman shot two Israelis, a man and his pregnant wife, near the Bruchin settlement. They had been en route to a hospital for the woman to give birth; she died from her injuries but the baby was saved via C-section.[102] Afterwards, the IDF began besieging the Palestinian villages of Burqin and Kafr al-Dik as they looked for the shooter, and two Israeli settler attacks against Palestinian properties nearby appear to have been carried out in retaliation.[103]
21 May
A group of European, Arab, and Asian diplomats on an official mission to access the humanitarian situation in Jenin were fired on by the IDF, causing international condemnation. The IDF apologized for the incident, stating it had fired warning shots to move the delegation away since it had deviated from the authorized route of the visit.[104][105] Following the 2025 killing of Israeli Embassy workers in Washington, D.C., Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Europe of "antisemitic incitement."[106] In an interview with CBC News, the Israeli ambassador to Canada claimed that the diplomats may have been "led astray."[107]
27 May
Israeli forces raided money exchange shops in Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron Arrabeh, Al-Bireh, Bethlehem, Jenin, and Tubas. According to Israel, the shops were being used to funnel money into "terrorist infrastructure".[108]
6 June
The IDF arrested the commander of the Jenin Brigades, a PIJ member, during an operation near Jenin.[109]
10 June
The IDF began a large-scale raid into Nablus, with Palestinian rioters confronting Israeli military vehicles entering the city. Two Palestinians were killed by the IDF after they tried to take a soldier's weapon. Troops took over several buildings for use as temporary bases.[110]
12 June
A gunman was killed after firing at Israeli troops at a checkpoint near the Hermesh settlement.[111]
13 June
Following the start of its war with Iran, Israel began implementing a strict lockdown on the West Bank that included severe restrictions on Palestinians' movement.[112]
10 July
Two PA police officers carried out a combined shooting and stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, which resulted in one Israeli casualty. Hamas praised the attack, while the Palestinian Security Services were said to plan an internal investigation.[113]
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Humanitarian impact and human rights violations
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The scale of destruction during the Israeli operation has been compared to that of the Gaza Strip.[44][41][114][115][116] According to historians and researchers, the operation also marks the biggest displacement of civilians in the West Bank since the Six-Day War in 1967,[54] with UNRWA stating more than 40,000 Palestinians have been forced from their homes.[51] Jenin has become mostly deserted,[114] and thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from Tulkarm.[10] The IDF has demolished dozens of homes in Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nablus, and leveled entire residential blocks.[115] In Jenin, Israeli forces destroyed water reserve tanks, and destroyed around 180 homes.[117]
Israeli and Palestinian Authority forces have besieged and stormed multiple hospitals.[55][59][13] According to a report published by Doctors Without Borders on 6 February 2025, access to healthcare in the occupied West Bank has been severely hindered by a widespread network of Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks, which impede the movement of ambulances and emergency medical teams.[118]
Civilian killings by Israeli forces have included the killing of a man and his pregnant wife near Tulkarm, a young woman in Nur Shams camp, and a seven-year-old boy in the Tulkarm refugee camp. According to Yaniv Kubovich of Haaretz, sources from inside the IDF reported that expanded open-fire orders from the Central Command have made soldiers on the ground "trigger-happy".[119]
Reactions
Hamas issued a statement calling for "people in the West Bank and its revolutionary youth to mobilize and escalate the clash with the occupation army at all points of contact with it."[32] Hamas also condemned the Palestinian Authority's participation in the raid, saying that its security coordination with Israel had "reached catastrophic levels".[30]
The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of collective punishment and said the raid was part of an Israeli plan to gradually annex the West Bank,[61] despite its own participation in the operation.
Ayman Safadi, Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, warned that the situation was dangerous and that "the whole world needs to take a deep look at what is happening, and, with the same vigour that we’re looking at the ceasefire, we should also be working to prevent an explosion in the West Bank."[120]
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "maximum restraint",[121] and Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese wrote on X that "If it is not forced to stop, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians will not be confined to Gaza. Mark my words."[122]
France expressed concerns over the operation and called on Israel to show restraint.[123]
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Analysis
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IDF reservist Colonel Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, said that the events in Jenin are just another example of the typical IDF raid in the West Bank that lasts several days and ends with a withdrawal. Milshtein argues this type of raid has become repeated and ineffective, only merely damaging militant infrastructure, and that a similar outcome in Jenin can be expected.[124] This was before Defense Minister Katz's announcement of a change in raid strategy.
On 28 January 2025, a Haaretz article by Yaniv Kubovich claimed that the Jenin Brigades (referred to as "the Hamas battalion in the refugee camp") do not actually exist, and are an Israeli invention for the purposes of linking the Jenin raid to the Gaza war. The article states that the only so-called militants in Jenin are "young criminals who... had been getting a few hundred dollars to shoot at IDF forces", and cites the unidentified commander of the Menashe Brigade who admitted there was not really a "battalion".[26] This claim would stand in contrast to the multiple mentions of the Jenin Brigades in various sources since its foundation in 2021.[125][126][127][128][129]
Dalia Hatuqa, writing for Politico, said that many Palestinians believe the operation is a way for Israelis to continue to take revenge on the Palestinian population for the 7 October attacks, despite the Gaza ceasefire.[116]
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See also
Notes
- Most of the armed units in the West Bank are semi-autonomous and "cross-factional", unifying militants belonging to the Al-Quds Brigades of PIJ, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and the Al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas.[14][15]
- While Israel claims its operation was launched with the knowledge and coordination of the PA,[27] the PA claims the operation caught them by surprise and that members of their security services were killed by the IDF.[28] Nonetheless, a day after the IDF operation began, PA forces began fighting militants alongside the IDF.[13][29][30]
- Israel said it will not allow them to return.[31]
- Hebrew: חומת ברזל
- The PA autonomously governs the West Bank's Palestinian enclaves and is also in conflict with local militias.
- The ceasefire broke down in March 2025, after Israel launched surprise attacks on the Gaza Strip.
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References
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