Minister says Israel applying ‘lessons’ from Gaza in West Bank operation

Israel's defense minister stated that the Israeli military is applying methods learned from the Gaza war to their "Iron Wall" military operation in the occupied West Bank. In Jenin, Israeli forces have caused at least 10 deaths and ordered the evacuation of residents from the area's refugee camp.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that the operation in Jenin, now in its third day, marks a shift in Israel's military plans in the occupied West Bank and is a "first lesson learned from repeating the methods of attacks in Gaza." An Israeli military spokesperson declined to provide details of the Jenin operation, which began on Tuesday and is the third large-scale incursion into Jenin by Israeli forces in less than two years. Jenin has long been a stronghold of resistance against Israel's decades-long military occupation of Palestinian territories.

Residents inside the Jenin refugee camp reported ongoing gunfire and explosions on Wednesday, while Palestinian health authorities reported at least four injuries in the camp. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on Wednesday that Israeli forces used "advanced weapons and combat methods, including airstrikes" in the Jenin camp, which is now "almost uninhabitable," with an estimated 2,000 families displaced from the area since December.

Roland Friedrich, the Director of UNRWA Affairs in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, stated that Israel's "large-scale operation" in Jenin also "has the potential to undermine the fragile ceasefire agreement reached in Gaza just days ago." Israeli media also reported that two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday in the Wadi Burqin area near Jenin city. The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Israeli forces surrounded a building in the town of Burqin and ordered the occupants to evacuate using loudspeakers.

Israeli drone airstrikes hit the house, while soldiers on the ground fired anti-tank grenades at the building, which was then leveled by military bulldozers. When the Israeli attack began on Tuesday, 10 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, including children and medical personnel, in the Jenin area. Jenin Governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP that the situation was "very difficult" as Israeli military bulldozers destroyed all roads leading to the Jenin refugee camp and Jenin Government Hospital. He said that Israeli forces have also detained about 20 people from villages around Jenin since the operation began on Tuesday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on Israeli forces to "exercise maximum restraint" in Jenin and expressed deep concern, his deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said. On Monday, Guterres stated at a UN Security Council meeting that he was concerned that Israel and the "relentless expansion of illegal Israeli settlements" posed an "existential threat to the integrity and contiguity" of Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The UN Secretary-General said, "Senior Israeli officials are openly talking about formally annexing all or parts of the West Bank in the coming months." He stated, "Any such annexation would constitute the most serious violation of international law."