The Israeli army begins raids in the West Bank

The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it had embarked on what it described as a counter-terrorism operation in Jenin, a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank that has become a hotbed of militancy.

He gave no further details, but the new incursion comes amid rising tensions in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority, which has typically left security in the area to Israel, has waged an unusually public crackdown on militants in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Jewish extremists raided several Palestinian villages in the West Bank on Monday night, hours after President Trump announced sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on dozens of Israeli individuals and far-right settler groups accused of violence against Palestinians. .

The cancellation of sanctions was one of a long list of executive orders that Mr. Trump has signed immediately after its inauguration. Palestinian officials strongly criticized the move, saying it was likely to encourage more violence. Hardliners in Israel’s right-wing government and leaders of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank had called for the removal of the sanctions, which then-President Biden imposed under an executive order he signed nearly a year ago.

Some settler leaders have forged close ties with Mr. Trump’s associates over the years, including Mike Huckabeethe choice of Mr. Trump as the next ambassador to Jerusalem.

The lifting of the sanctions coincided with a second consecutive night of violence in the West Bank, as extremist settlers protested against a ceasefire in Gaza, which came into effect on Sunday and ushered in a period of calm after 15 months of war since October. 7, 2023, the Hamas-led assault on Israel. The attackers set fire to vehicles and property, according to Palestinian officials and the Israeli military.

Members of the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and their supporters oppose the ceasefire, the first phase of which calls for a six-week truce and weekly exchanges of a total of 33 hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

The details of the second phase of the agreement have yet to be negotiated, but it calls for the temporary ceasefire to become permanent and for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Violence in the West Bank escalated sharply after the October 7 attack. The growing power of militants in West Bank cities such as Jenin and Tulkarm has prompted a deadly cycle of Israeli raids and drone strikeswhich devastated Palestinian neighborhoods.

Israeli troops seized neighborhoods for days at a time, looking for suspected militants as bulldozers. chew through streets search for explosives. The Israeli military says its soldiers were forced to carry out the deadly raids to quell the militants.