January 2023 Jenin incursion participant Israel Defense Forces
Background
Tensions were rising since the events giving rise to the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis. In the spring of 2022, attacks by Arab Israelis and Palestinians killed 16 Israelis and two foreigners, following which there has been near nightly army raids in the West Bank. The Israeli military launched what it called Operation Breakwater involving near nightly incursions into Jenin to conduct searches, arrests and home demolitions in the pursuit of armed Palestinian factions. The groups targeted included the Jenin Brigades, cross-factional groups of fighters created, according to Palestinian accounts, to resist the nightly Israeli raiding. The formation of these brigades has become a model for other refugee camps, and villages, across the northern West Bank. Jenin drew world attention in May when Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed while reporting on an army raid in its crowded refugee camp. The August 2022 Gaza-Israel clashes followed a raid on Jenin in which Israeli forces arrested Bassam al-Saadi, a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in that area.More than 170 Palestinians, including 30 children, were killed in 2022. Armed militants were a significant proportion of the Palestinian deaths but many were not carrying guns and sometimes they were civilians. Some fatalities arose during protests against Israeli settlers setting up illegal outposts. Israel was repeatedly accused of an excessive use of force, a claim it denies. In 2023, prior to the raid, one-third of the Palestinians killed had ties to armed groups.