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Katz: IDF to remain in north West Bank refugee camps until year’s end at least |
2025-08-11 |
[IsraelTimes] ‘Today there is no terror in the camps,’ says defense minister; Israel nabs 3 suspects accused of planning major terror attack; Arab Israeli man said killed by troops in Jericho Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that IDF troops will remain deployed to northern West Bank refugee camps at least until the end of the year, committing to the continuation of Israeli military presence in the densely populated Paleostinian towns for several more months. Meanwhile Israeli security forces said they had arrested three West Bank residents who had been planning a major terror attack in Israel, as well as attacks on security forces in the West Bank. In January, the military launched an offensive against terror operatives in the northern West Bank. The offensive, dubbed "Operation Iron Wall," began in the Jenin refugee camp, adjacent to the city of Jenin, and later expanded to include refugee camps near the city of Tulkarem in the western West Bank — the Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps. The offensive followed a spike in West Bank violence, following October 7, 2023. Since the Hamas ![]() onslaught, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas. According to Katz, the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams camps were hotbeds of terror, funded, and armed by Iran, to act as another front against Israel. There are 20 historical refugee camps in the West Bank, all of which were established shortly after 1948, housing Paleostinians who fled or were expelled during the War of Independence from homes located in what is now the State of Israel. Over the years, these camps have evolved into densely populated and enclosed neighborhoods. In the past eight months, Katz said, the IDF has carried out an "intensive" offensive, during which residents of the camps were evacuated, button men were killed, and infrastructure used by terror groups were destroyed. "The IDF will remain inside the camps at this stage, at least until the end of the year, under my directives," Katz said in his statement. "Today, there is no terror in the camps, and the scope of terror alerts in Judea and Samaria [West Bank] has dropped by 80 percent," he added. In May, the military reported that it had killed over 100 terror operatives and arrested around 320 wanted suspects, seizing approximately 450 weapons in the northern West Bank. The IDF has not updated its figures since then, but operations have continued. In the same month, the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees, UNRWA, said that approximately 40,000 people had been displaced from the camps by the IDF operations and relocated to nearby villages or the adjacent cities of Jenin or Tulkarem. In July, UNRWA said that mass displacement in the West Bank had hit levels not seen since the start of Israel’s military control of the Paleostinian territory nearly 60 years ago, claiming that "about 30,000 Paleostinians remain forcibly displaced." During the same period, Israeli security forces issued demolition orders for about 1,400 homes in the northern West Bank, a UN front man said, describing the figures as "alarming." TERROR SUSPECTS ARRESTED Also on Sunday, coppers and Shin Bet agents nabbed three people, including a father and son, suspected of plotting attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces. The suspects — all currently in jug — planned to stage a bombing attack at a checkpoint in northern Jerusalem, assassinate someone they believed to be an Israeli Air Force pilot, and shoot up a nightclub in central Israel, police said. A senior police investigator told Ynet that the probe represents "one of the most serious cases we’ve handled in the unit," saying the arrest of the three suspects prevented a mass casualty attack. The investigation was opened after the father, who resides with his son in Kufr Aqab in East Jerusalem, reached out to an undercover cop with an offer to sell him explosives meant for terror attacks. The father and son had been employed as cooks at a restaurant and a retirement home in central Israel, according to Ynet. The outlet reported that the father is an Arab Moslem who married and had a son with a Jewish Israeli woman. The two have since divorced. The detained son, Jewish by virtue of his mother, reportedly converted to Islam after he was disqualified from serving in the IDF for reasons that remain unclear. The pair was arrested by the Jerusalem District Police’s Investigations and Intelligence unit in late June. Officers seized bombmaking components, ammunition and ready-to-use pipe bombs when raiding apartments that the two had stayed in, police said. The third suspect, a resident of East Jerusalem in his 20s, was arrested on suspicion of preparing explosives with the father and hiding them in his home. He also planned to attack security forces, officials allege. A prosecutor’s declaration was filed against the three, and they will be charged with security offenses in the coming days, law enforcement announced. ARAB ISRAELI MAN SAID KILLED BY IDF8 In another development in the West Bank, an Arab Israeli man from Nazareth was rubbed out by IDF troops in the city of Jericho on Saturday night, local Arab outlets reported on Sunday. Abdallah Atiyat, 24, had been visiting his aunt in Jericho over the weekend when he was shot in the head amid festivities during an army raid in the city’s downtown area, according to the Arab Israeli radio station Radio Shams. In an interview with the station, Atiyat’s mother, Amina, said that her son had been struggling to get back to Nazareth amid widespread closures due to the raid. He was reportedly killed while searching for a taxi to take him home. He was taken at death's door to a hospital in Jericho, then shuttled to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where he succumbed to his wounds. Responding to a request for comment, the IDF told The Times of Israel that its forces had been operating in the Jericho region Saturday night, when Atiyat was killed. During the army operation, IDF forces "identified a suspect approaching them who posed a threat. The forces fired at the suspect, a hit was identified and the incident is under investigation," said a spokesperson. Violence in the West Bank has spiked since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppressionand disproportionate response... According to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry, more than 950 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or holy warriors carrying out attacks. During the same period, 53 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank. Related: Northern West Bank: 2025-07-16 UN says mass displacement of West Bank Palestinians at highest levels since 1967 Northern West Bank: 2025-07-08 IDF says key arms dealer among two Palestinians killed by troops in West Bank raid; Hezbollah’s news director in the W. Bank arrested Northern West Bank: 2025-07-06 Police say they nabbed three terror cell members planning imminent attack Related: Operation Iron Wall: 2025-05-24 As IDF demolishes hundreds of houses in West Bank camps, residents are determined to return Operation Iron Wall: 2025-05-10 IDF says ‘most wanted West Bank terror operative’ killed in Nablus operation Operation Iron Wall: 2025-05-08 3 months into major Jenin operation, IDF signals gains as residents face ruin |
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