Today, Wednesday, the Israeli occupation army began a large-scale military operation, which included raids and arrests in the Tubas area in the northern West Bank. The armed forces declared a curfew, closed all entrances to the city with dirt barriers and checkpoints, and warned the Palestinian National Authority – which has administrative and security control on paper – that the attack would continue for several days, according to the region’s governor, Ahmed Al-Asaad. This appears to be an extension of the operations that began at the beginning of the year in three refugee camps in the northern West Bank (which Israel has militarily occupied since the Six-Day War in 1967) and which continue to displace more than 30,000 people from their homes. But in Tubas, no mass population displacement has been recorded.
The army defines it as a “large-scale anti-terrorism operation” in cooperation with the Shin Bet (Israeli intelligence services) and the border police, with the aim of “acting proactively” to prevent “terrorism from taking root” in the northern West Bank. According to Israeli media, the equivalent of three brigades are participating, which means several thousand soldiers and agents.
The pictures show Apache helicopters flying in the sky of the city of Tubas, in addition to the arrival of soldier transport vehicles and military excavators. The Israeli army closed the main roads in the area, causing major traffic jams. Schools and day care centers closed their doors.
In the town of Tammoun, south of Tubas, soldiers have already turned at least 10 homes into firing positions, damaging roads and cutting water pipes, according to the city council. He added that the forces cordoned off entire neighborhoods, isolated them from each other, and raided many homes. In the pictures, soldiers can be seen taking detained men with their hands tied behind their backs. The Red Crescent reported that at least one person was injured as a result of strikes launched by Israeli soldiers.
“Maximum unity”
Hamas issued a statement calling on Palestinian society to show “the utmost national unity to confront open war in the West Bank” and also called on the international community to take “immediate and strong measures.” Since October 2023, in parallel with the Gaza invasion, more than a thousand Palestinians (including militiamen and civilians) have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli fire, most of them soldiers and border police.
A video clip broadcast by the Al Jazeera satellite network this morning also shows military vehicles entering the city of Tulkarm, another city in the West Bank. They actually entered there in January 2025, at the beginning of the largest military operation in the West Bank since the end of the Second Intifada, two decades ago. Defense Minister Yisrael Katz spoke at the time about applying the “first lesson of style” from Gaza there, and threatened to leave similar destruction. At least 32,000 civilians fled or were forced to leave three refugee camps in the north of the country: Jenin, Nour Shams and Tulkarm.
Ten months later, they are still in their relatives’ homes, mosques, schools or charitable institutions, without the Israeli authorities proposing a horizon for return. It is the largest forced displacement in the West Bank since the Six-Day War, and last week, in a report on the subject, the human rights NGO Human Rights Watch described what happened as war crimes and crimes against humanity.