Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to step up its operations in the occupied West Bank on Friday as he paid a rare visit to troops in the territory that drew Palestinian condemnation.
Netanyahu’s visit to Tulkarem refugee camp in the north of the territory came after bombs that Israeli officials said resembled those used by operatives in the West Bank exploded on multiple buses in central Israel on Thursday.
The prime minister’s office said he ordered more “operational activity” in the northern West Bank in response to the bomb blasts.
Days after a ceasefire took effect in Gaza on January 19, Israel launched a large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank dubbed “Iron Wall”, spanning multiple refugee camps near the cities of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas.
“We are entering terrorist strongholds, flattening entire streets that terrorists use, and their homes. We are eliminating terrorists, commanders,” Netanyahu said.
At least 51 Palestinians, including seven children, and three Israeli soldiers have been killed since the assault began, according to the United Nations.
On Friday, “live fire” from Israeli troops killed a 13-year-old girl in Jenin refugee camp, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Israeli fire also killed a 13-year-old boy near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, the ministry said.
On Thursday, a Palestinian was killed when his car was struck by an armoured vehicle just outside Tulkarem camp, provincial governor Abdallah Kamil told news agency AFP.
The Israeli offensive has displaced at least 40,000 people, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The operation is now the longest in the West Bank since the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the early 2000s.
Netanyahu said the army was doing “very important work against Hamas and other terrorist organisations’ desire to harm us”.
He said Israel had intensified its raids over the past year, fighting in camps it deems to harbour Palestinian armed groups.
‘Storming’
In both Tulkarem and Jenin, the army has demolished dozens of homes with explosives, opening up new access routes into the densely built camps.
Armoured bulldozers have wreaked havoc in the camps, upturning tarmac, cutting water pipes and tearing down roadside facades.
Palestinians on social media expressed shock at a photograph shared by Netanyahu’s office showing him meeting with army officers in a command centre that appeared to have been established inside a camp resident’s home.
The Palestinian foreign ministry accused Netanyahu of “storming” the camp.
Netanyahu’s visit came after three buses exploded in the central Israeli city of Bat Yam late Thursday without causing any casualties.
A police commander from central Israel, Haim Sargarof, said in a televised briefing that the devices used to set off the blasts were similar to those found in the West Bank.
Violence in the West Bank has surged since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 900 Palestinians in the territory since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 32 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the territory over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
