Israel Launches Massive Operation into Jenin

Facts

• Starting early on Monday, Israel launched a massive military operation into the northern West Bank city of Jenin, killing at least eight Palestinians, five of which were teenagers, and injuring about 80 others.¹
• This campaign — called a "brigade-level raid" — reportedly involved more than 1K troops and over ten drone strikes, with the Israeli military claiming to have struck a command center used by Palestinian militants in the adjacent Jenin refugee camp.²
• The scale of the operation is the largest since the second Intifada two decades ago. The Israeli military said that it sought "to break the safe-haven mind-set” of the refugee camp, with a local Palestinian administrative committee member saying that people are terrified and did not expect such a large operation.³
• Gun battles between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters and drone strikes are ongoing as of the evening of Monday local time. In a separate incident, a Palestinian man was killed near Ramallah, after Israeli forces shot him in the head at a military checkpoint.⁴
• The Palestinian Authority called the Israeli operation "a war crime." Al Jazeera reported that there is no sign that the fighting will soon subside, adding that there has been intense fighting towards the center of the refugee camp and a local mosque.⁵
• The situation in the West Bank has deteriorated in the last year as Israel has launched regular raids in the area following a spree of Palestinian attacks last year. There has also been an increased number of attacks on Israeli settlers in the West Bank in recent months, as settler attacks against Palestinians have also increased.⁶

Sources: ¹CNN, ²The Times of Israel, ³New York Times, ⁴Reuters, ⁵Al Jazeera, and ⁶Guardian.

Narratives

• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Middle East Eye. Israel is pushing the situation in the occupied West Bank to a breaking point by increasingly attacking Palestinian cities and committing war crimes. The current attack on Jenin is reminiscent of the 2002 battle of Jenin, in which Israel killed over 50 Palestinians and laid waste to the city's refugee camp. Though Israel clearly wants to continue its assault on the Palestinian people, it will have to keep in mind other fronts — such as Gaza and Lebanon — where it does not want to see an escalation.
• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by Jerusalem Post. Unfortunately, Israel has been forced to react to increasing Iranian interference in the West Bank and break the mindset that Jenin can be used as a springboard to launch attacks against Israeli civilians. For too long, Palestinian terrorists have been allowed to operate relatively freely in the northern West Bank — this must change. Additionally, Iran has been increasing its support to terrorists, fomenting a violent situation to which Israel must respond.

Predictions