Israeli military prepares for 'extended' West Bank stay amid massive displacement of Palestinians
The Israeli minister of military affairs has ordered troops to stay in the occupied West Bank refugee camps for the next year as the regime steps up raids across the occupied Palestinian territories.
In a statement released on Sunday, Israel Katz said he had ordered military forces to expand offensives in the Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank to dismantle Palestinians' infrastructure.
He further said the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has been told to halt its activity in the camps. Katz also announced that 40,000 Palestinians have already evacuated the refugee camps, and vowed to continue clearing them.
“40,000 Palestinians have so far evacuated from the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps, and are now empty of residents. UNRWA activity in the camps has also been stopped.”
“We will not return to the reality that was in the past. We will continue to clear refugee camps,” the minister said.
An Israeli military statement said that tanks will be deployed to Jenin as part of the offensive in the northern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
This came after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the military to carry out an "intensive operation" in the West Bank following explosions on buses close to Tel Aviv on Thursday.
No group has claimed responsibility for Tel Aviv bus blasts, which came after almost 16 months of Israeli genocidal campaign in Gaza and the ongoing destructive offensive in the West Bank.
Israeli police said that explosions rocked several buses in Bat Yam on Thursday evening.
Israeli officials said there are suspicions that the bus explosion attacks are linked to Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli media reports said that the explosive devices that exploded on the buses weighed 5 kilograms each, and one of them had the words "Revenge for Tulkarem camp" written on it.
Israel's military has been conducting a large-scale military offensive in the West Bank over the past month. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes in West Bank refugee camps, while houses and infrastructure have been demolished.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on Sunday condemned the decision to deploy tanks in the occupied region
"This is a dangerous Israeli escalation that will not lead to stability or calm, and we warn of this dangerous escalation," he said.
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