Israel's security chief says focus switching to West Bank

Days after a ceasefire in Gaza took effect, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service said the country was shifting its focus to Palestinian armed groups in the occupied West Bank. Ronen Bar said Israel was fighting on multiple fronts, but “now is the time for Samaria (the northern West Bank).”

Since Tuesday, Israeli forces have been conducting a large-scale military operation in and around the West Bank city of Jenin. Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, said that continuous military pressure would bring about a “change” in Jenin. Currently, military vehicles control access to Jenin’s main hospital and have blocked routes into the Jenin refugee camp, which is home to both civilians and Palestinian armed groups.

Roads into the refugee camp - some of which have been damaged by military bulldozers - are guarded by small groups of soldiers, who raised their weapons as we approached. On Thursday, large numbers of men, women and children left the refugee camp, navigating around military vehicles and over rubble in the road, as explosions and gunfire could be heard behind them. “The situation is very bad,” said taxi driver Adel. “I live in Auda Street, I was the last one to leave. There’s no-one left there.” Adel said the army had distributed leaflets in the camp, telling people to leave their homes.

“Everyone had to leave before 17:00,” he told me, “God knows what they will do.” Many of those leaving the refugee camp on Thursday, clutching children, pets and plastic bags filled with clothes, told us they had received instructions from the army to leave - either via drone or truck announcements, or through leaflets. The BBC has seen photographs of what are said to be leaflets distributed within the camp, and heard recordings believed to be Israeli broadcasts, which appear to confirm residents’ accounts. But an Israeli government spokesperson, David Mencer, told reporters in a briefing that there were “no evacuation orders” for the people of Jenin.

“Those in Jenin who are not involved in terrorism are free to leave and to distance themselves from our activity,” he said. But he described reports of evacuation orders as “fake news, likely spread by Hamas supporters”. Israel says its aim is to destroy armed groups here, backed by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and prevent them from launching attacks on Israeli targets. It fears the West Bank will become the next focus for Iranian influence and weapons. But showing force here, after the Gaza ceasefire, also suits those in Israel who want not only to continue fighting there, but also to annex the West Bank.

Twelve Palestinians have reportedly been killed in the operation, and dozens injured, including two men allegedly involved in the killing of three Israelis in a shooting earlier this month. Qutaiba Shalabi and Mohammed Nazzal were killed in a fierce gun battle with Israeli forces in Burqin, west of Jenin, on Wednesday night. Hamas issued a statement claiming they were its fighters. But civilians have also been killed in the operation. Ahmed Shayeb owned a mobile phone shop in Jenin - locals say he was a well-known businessman, not a fighter.

He was shot dead by Israeli forces as he drove along a road near the Jenin refugee camp, with his 10-year-old son Taim in the car. “They started shooting, a bullet hit him,” Taim told reporters at his father’s funeral on Wednesday, “He said, ‘God, God,’ and then the car hit the pavement. I saw two military vehicles coming towards us. They started shooting at the car but I jumped out and ran.” The Israeli military says the incident is under investigation.

Many people have told us that this assault feels different to many others carried out by Israel since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza. “This is different - they are attacking everywhere. Like Gaza,” one man told me as he left the refugee camp on Wednesday. Next to him, 52-year-old Keefa Sewal said she had lost 15 members of her family in the last 15 months. “After what happened in Gaza [by Israeli forces], the reaction is here,” she told me, “They are taking out their anger on us.”

The Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, has talked of a “strategic shift” in the operation, saying the lessons learned from Gaza are not only to “eliminate the terrorists”, as he put it, but also to prevent them from returning. That plan did not work in Gaza. It is not yet clear whether it will work in Jenin.