Israel's foreign minister says Palestinians will be ordered to evacuate parts of the northern occupied West Bank, amid unprecedented bloody raids in the area as similar measures have been taken by the regime’s military in the Gaza Strip, which is subjected to a genocidal war since October.
In a post on social media platform X on Wednesday, Israel Katz said the Israeli military is working “intensively” to thwart what he alleged to be “terrorist infrastructures” in the Jenin and Tulkarm refugee camps, claiming that “an eastern terrorist front” is being established against Israel in the West Bank.
Katz noted that the raids see "temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents" in areas in the northern West Bank in measures akin to those imposed in Gaza.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli army launched raids in the cities of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas in the northern West Bank, killing at least 11 Palestinians.
Since the start of Israel’s aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip in October, the West Bank has also seen a rise in violence from Israeli forces and settlers that has claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinians.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 662 Palestinians were killed and about 5,400 others injured by Israeli fire since October 7, considering the new deaths.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 40,534 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 93,778 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.
In a landmark ruling, the United Nations’ top court said last month Israel’s presence in the 1967- occupied Palestinian territories is “unlawful” and must end.
In a 1967 war, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East al-Quds, which it subsequently annexed.
The 83-page advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice also outlined a wide list of policies that it said violated international law, including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east al-Quds.