# 2025 Israeli operation in the West Bank

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On 21 January 2025, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began a large-scale military operation, which it named "Iron Wall" against Palestinian militants in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Described as an invasion by the Associated Press, Israel's operation initially only targeted the Jenin Brigades, a local Palestinian militia in Jenin. On the fourth day, the IDF expanded its activities to Tulkarm and other Palestinian cities and towns. It marks a strategically distinct and more aggressive approach against West Bank militancy compared to previous Israeli raids, and also marks the first time that the Palestinian Authority (PA) directly participates in an Israeli military operation.
Furthermore, the fighting marks a shift in Israeli military focus towards the West Bank and away from the Gaza Strip, where a ceasefire that halted the Gaza war was implemented on 19 January 2025. The IDF has stated that the aims of the operation are to preserve its "freedom of action” in the West Bank, to neutralize militant infrastructure, and to eliminate imminent threats.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation is an action against the "Iranian axis", referring to the Iranian support of West Bank militants, and Israeli far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said it marks the start of a campaign to protect Israeli settlements in the occupied region. Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said it marks a shift in the IDF's security plan in the West Bank and was “the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza”, later clarifying that Israeli forces planned to maintain a long-term military presence in Jenin beyond the raid's conclusion.

## Background

The Israeli operation followed several related developments in the region. On 19 January, the Gaza war ceasefire was implemented, halting fighting in the Gaza Strip. On 20 January, American president Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time and later issued an executive order rescinding sanctions against some Israeli settlers and settler groups accused of anti-Palestinian violence in the West Bank. That same day, a mob of Israeli settlers raided several Palestinian towns in protest against the Gaza ceasefire, until being dispersed by the IDF.

### PA operation in Jenin

In Jenin specifically, the security services of the PA had been conducting an operation against the Jenin Brigades since December 2024. Both sides signed a truce on 17 January 2025, but the deal fell through and fighting resumed two days later. The IDF initiated its raid due to the PA's operation eventually being deemed insufficient, according to The Jerusalem Post.

## Timeline
### 21 January

The raid began with drone strikes on militant infrastructure, and large numbers of IDF troops, including special forces, as well as Shin Bet agents and Border Police officers were deployed into Jenin. Palestinian sources also reported the participation of Israeli warplanes and armored vehicles, including bulldozers.
Palestinian Authority forces withdrew from their positions in Jenin as the IDF entered the city. According to the PA, the Israeli operation caught them by surprise and members of its forces were killed by Israeli fire. According to Israel, however, the PA was informed of the decision to enter Jenin beforehand, and PA forces withdrew to allow the IDF to proceed with their raid.
The IDF encircled Al-Amal, a local private hospital.

### 22 January

According to the mayor of Jenin, Israeli forces released as many as 600 people that had been detained overnight inside the Jenin Governmental Hospital.
Palestinian Authority forces stormed the Al-Razi hospital and arrested a man said to be a Jenin Brigades militant, marking the first ever time that PA forces have participated in an Israeli raid in the West Bank.
In Burqin, near Jenin, Israeli forces killed two militants that had carried out an attack against Israelis earlier in the month.

### 23 January

Hundreds of Palestinians from the Jenin camp began leaving their homes after Israeli forces issued an evacuation order.
PA forces arrested the Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed al-Atrash, who was attempting to cover the Israeli raid on Jenin.

### 24 January

Israeli forces blocked four main entrances to Jenin with earth mounds, preventing entry and exit, and set fire to residences in the Jenin refugee camp. In Yabad, west of Jenin, PA forces arrested and beat up a number of militants.
Joint Israeli–PA raids were reported in Tulkarm, Ramallah, Hebron and Qalqilya.

### 26 January

The IDF reported it had destroyed a bomb-making laboratory in Jenin.

### 27 January

The Iron Wall operation officially expanded to Tulkarm Governorate. The Israeli Air Force struck and killed Tulkarm's local Hamas commander and another militant in the Nur Shams refugee camp, and fighting broke out in Tulkarm between militants and Israeli forces on the ground.

### 29 January

Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said that Israeli forces planned to remain in Jenin indefinitely, even after the operation is concluded. This would mark the first time since the Second Intifada that Israeli forces are stationed in a Palestinian city for an extended period of time.

### 1 February

Israeli forces raided Nablus and the adjacent Balata refugee camp.

### 2 February

The IDF conducted a series of massive detonations in Jenin, stating it destroyed 23 buildings being used as "militant infrastructure".
Israeli forces expanded their operation into Tammun, closing the main road in the town.

### 3 February

The governor of Tulkarm Governorate, Abdullah Kamil, reported that half of the population of Tulkarm fled and that hospitals and residences were being attacked by Israeli forces.

### 4 February

A Palestinian gunman attacked an Israeli checkpoint in the village of Tayasir, north of Tubas, killing two IDF soldiers and wounding another eight.
PA forces clashed with militants in eastern Jenin.

### 9 February

Israeli forces surrounded and attacked the Nur Shams camp. The Tulkarm Brigade said it successfully ambushed a group of IDF soldiers inside the camp.

### 18 February

Israeli forces demolished more than a dozen apartment buildings inside the Tulkarm refugee camp.

### 20 February

Three empty Israeli buses exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv; no one was harmed. Israeli police commander Haim Sargarof said the devices used to set off the blasts were similar to those used by West Bank militants. One of the unexploded mechanisms carried a message saying "Revenge from Tulkarm"; the Tulkarm Brigade released a statement that said "Revenge for the martyrs will not be forgotten as long as the occupier sits on our land", but did not explicitly claim responsibility for the attack. The Shin Bet said that the attack was directed by Iran and carried out by Hamas.

### 21 February

Following the bus bombings, Netanyahu ordered an intensification of the operation in the West Bank, and the IDF said it would deploy three more battalions to the region.

### 23 February

The IDF deployed three Merkava tanks from the 188th Armored Brigade to Jenin, marking the first time since Operation Defensive Shield that Israeli tanks operated in the West Bank.

### 4 March

The IDF said they killed Aysar al-Saadi, a Hamas commander in Jenin, in a shootout.

### 6 March

The IDF rescued 10 Indian workers who had been forcibly held by Palestinians in the village of al-Zaayem for over a month; the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority reported that the workers had traveled to Israel for construction jobs but were lured to the village with false promises of employment by Palestinians, who took their passports to attempt illegal entry into Israel.

### 7 March

The IDF targeted and damaged six mosques in Nablus, including the historical landmark An-Nasr Mosque, which was partially burned. Local officials condemned the attacks.

### 8 March

Militants targeted an Israeli civilian vehicle traveling near Nabi Ilyas with Molotov cocktails.

### 10 March

In Jenin, PA forces killed the prominent Jenin Brigades militant Abdul Rahman Abu Al-Muna.

### 12 March

A militant shot and injured an 18-year-old Israeli near the Ariel settlement. Hamas claimed responsibility and said that it was a response to Israeli military actions in the West Bank.

## Humanitarian impact and human rights violations

The scale of destruction during the Israeli operation has been compared to that of the Gaza Strip. According to historians and researchers, the operation also marks the biggest displacement of civilians in the West Bank since the Six-Day War in 1967, with around 40,000 Palestinians displaced. Jenin has become mostly deserted, and thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from Tulkarm. The IDF has demolished dozens of homes in Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nablus, and leveled entire residential blocks. In Jenin, Israeli forces destroyed water reserve tanks, and destroyed around 180 homes, including two belonging to the Palestinian Christian minority.
Israeli and Palestinian Authority forces have besieged and stormed multiple hospitals. According to a report published by Doctors Without Borders on 6 February 2025, access to healthcare in the occupied West Bank has been severely hindered by a widespread network of Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks, which impede the movement of ambulances and emergency medical teams.
Civilian killings by Israeli forces have included the killing of a man and his pregnant wife near Tulkarm, a young woman in Nur Shams camp, and a seven-year-old boy in the Tulkarm refugee camp. According to Yaniv Kubovich of Haaretz, sources from inside the IDF reported that expanded open-fire orders from the Central Command have made soldiers on the ground "trigger-happy".

## Reactions

* Hamas issued a statement calling for "people in the West Bank and its revolutionary youth to mobilize and escalate the clash with the occupation army at all points of contact with it." Hamas also condemned the Palestinian Authority's participation in the raid, saying that its security coordination with Israel had "reached catastrophic levels".
* The Palestinian Authority accused Israel of collective punishment and said the raid was part of an Israeli plan to gradually annex the West Bank, despite its own participation in the operation.
* Ayman Safadi, Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, warned that the situation was dangerous and that "the whole world needs to take a deep look at what is happening, and, with the same vigour that we’re looking at the ceasefire, we should also be working to prevent an explosion in the West Bank."
* Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "maximum restraint", and Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese wrote on X that "If it is not forced to stop, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians will not be confined to Gaza. Mark my words."
* France expressed concerns over the operation and called on Israel to show restraint.

## Analysis

IDF reservist Colonel Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, said that the events in Jenin are just another example of the typical IDF raid in the West Bank that lasts several days and ends with a withdrawal. Milshtein argues this type of raid has become repeated and ineffective, only merely damaging militant infrastructure, and that a similar outcome in Jenin can be expected. This was before Defense Minister Katz's announcement of a change in raid strategy.
On 28 January 2025, a Haaretz article by Yaniv Kubovich claimed that the Jenin Brigades (referred to as "the Hamas battalion in the refugee camp") do not actually exist, and are an Israeli invention for the purposes of linking the Jenin raid to the Gaza war. The article states that the only so-called militants in Jenin are "young criminals who... had been getting a few hundred dollars to shoot at IDF forces", and cites the unidentified commander of the Menashe Brigade who admitted there was not really a "battalion". This claim would stand in contrast to the multiple mentions of the Jenin Brigades in various sources since its foundation in 2021.
Dalia Hatuqa, writing for Politico, said that many Palestinians believe the operation is a way for Israelis to continue to take revenge on the Palestinian population for the 7 October attacks, despite the Gaza ceasefire.