4 days ago
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Hundreds of Israeli soldiers supported by armoured vehicles have conducted raids in the Palestinian town of Tubas near Nablus in the biggest such military deployment by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since the ceasefire came into effect in Gaza last month.
Palestinian media reported that a curfew was imposed on Tuesday night on Tubas and some neighbouring communities, roads were closed by earthen barriers and families forced from their homes to allow Israeli forces to use the buildings.
Israeli’s military and internal security service said in a joint statement that they had launched “a broad counter-terrorism operation” that was expected to continue for several days.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that leaflets distributed by the Israeli military in Tubas had informed people that the area had “become a haven for terrorism”.
“If you do not change this, we will act as we did in Jenin and Tulkarm,” the leaflets warned, referring to two northern cities in the West Bank targeted by big military assaults by Israeli forces earlier this year that caused widespread damage and displaced tens of thousands of people.
In Gaza, there were further reports of violence overnight, including bombardment near the central town of al-Bureij. The Israeli military said it had killed six Hamas militants who “most likely” had emerged from a tunnel near Rafah, the city in the south of the devastated Palestinian territory.
There was no independent confirmation of the claim, but there have been a series of clashes in recent days in the half of Gaza controlled by Israeli forces involving militants trapped in tunnels.
On Tuesday, Hamas handed over the remains of Dror Or, an Israeli hostage killed with his wife when their home was stormed by attackers from the Islamist organisation during the surprise raid into Israel in October 2023 that triggered the conflict in Gaza. The remains of two hostages – one Israeli, one Thai – remain in Gaza. Israel has agreed to release 15 Palestinian bodies for each hostage returned.
In total, militants from Hamas and allied factions killed about 1,200 people and abducted 251 to Gaza during the attack. Almost 70,000 Palestinians were killed and 170,863 injured in the ensuring Israeli offensive, including hundreds since the fragile ceasefire came into effect last month.
The next phases of Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the conflict in Gaza, include developing an international body to govern Gaza and oversee reconstruction under a two-year renewable UN mandate. An armed international stabilisation force is to keep security and ensure the disarming of Hamas, a key demand of Israel. The implementation of almost every part of the plan faces massive challenges.
Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has spiked since October 2023 and has continued after the ceasefire.
According to the UN, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza. UN officials attributed most of these fatalities to “the systematic and excessive use of lethal force by Israeli forces, often involving live fire, airstrikes and shoulder-fired missiles in densely populated areas, resulting in numerous civilian deaths, including children”.
At least 44 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the West Bank, according to the UN.
Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said in a report that the Israeli government’s forced displacement of the populations of West Bank refugee camps in January and February 2025 amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The 32,000 people reportedly displaced from the camps have not been permitted to return to their homes, many of which Israel forces have deliberately demolished, the international campaign group said.
