JENIN, OCCUPIED WEST BANK:
A Palestinian group claimed on Monday that Israel’s unusual deployment of tanks in the occupied West Bank, as part of a large-scale military operation displacing tens of thousands, could be a move toward annexation.
The streets surrounding Jenin’s refugee camp in the northern West Bank were nearly deserted, according to an AFP journalist, with three Israeli Merkava tanks stationed on elevated positions overlooking the area.
Some displaced residents cautiously re-entered the camp through side alleys to collect their belongings.
“We go back in to get whatever we can. We take the risk because we have to,” said 52-year-old Ahmad al-Qahrawi.
“When we fled, we had nothing—no clothes, nothing. We return to gather warm clothing because of the cold weather.”
Israeli leaders have long expressed intentions to annex parts of the West Bank, occupied since 1967, but such plans have faced strong resistance from Palestinians and widespread international opposition.
In an ongoing military operation in the northern West Bank, launched around the same time as a truce in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Israeli forces have cleared three refugee camps and deployed tanks in Jenin.
Islamic Jihad, a militant group active in the region, claimed that the large-scale evacuations and Israel’s first deployment of tanks in the West Bank since the early 2000s “confirm the occupation’s plans to annex the West Bank by force.”
The group, which has engaged in conflict alongside Hamas in Gaza and maintains a stronghold in the northern West Bank, condemned what it called “a new act of aggression” aimed at “uprooting our people from their land.”
