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What’s going on in the occupied West Bank, and why now?

What’s going on in the occupied West Bank, and why now?
By Lyndal Rowlands, Mersiha Gadzo, Usaid Siddiqui, Stephen Quillen, Federica Marsi and Joseph Stepansky
Published On 23 Jan 2025

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23 Jan 2025 - 23:59
 (23:59 GMT)

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This live page is now closed. Follow along with our ongoing live coverage here.

For more context on the conflict, read our explainer on Israel’s “Iron Wall” military raid in Jenin here.

Read our analysis of where Trump can oversee a peace deal while putting “America First” here.

Or watch our dispatch on how Palestinians in Gaza are trying to rebuild their homes amid the tenuous ceasefire agreement here.

23 Jan 2025 - 23:30
 (23:30 GMT)

Trump says more captives held in Gaza will be returning home

In his first international speech of his second term, delivered via livestream at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, United States President Donald Trump took credit for the Gaza ceasefire deal, saying, “It wouldn’t have happened without us.”

“Before even taking office, my team negotiated a ceasefire agreement in the Middle East,” he said.

Trump also promised that more captives would return home after three Israeli women were released by Hamas on Sunday.

“They are returning, and it’s a beautiful sight. And they’ll be coming in more and more,” he said.

His comments come amid uncertainty over whether the ceasefire deal will hold after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered remarks in which he said he had the backing of the US to restart fighting in Gaza in “new, forceful ways” in the second phase of the deal.

23 Jan 2025 - 23:15
 (23:15 GMT)

Israeli forces storm Azzun, continue Jenin raid

The WAFA news agency has reported that Israeli forces have stormed the northern entrance of the town, which is located east of Qalqliya in the occupied West Bank.

The news agency reported that Israeli forces raided several homes, but no arrests were made.

Meanwhile, as Israeli operations in Jenin continued, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported five Palestinians were injured in the refugee camp in recent hours.

The Israeli military also continued to burn homes in Jenin. Local officials have said Israeli forces have issued forced evacuation orders in the camp, although Israel’s military had denied issuing the orders.

At least 12 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched the full-scale operation in the wake of the ceasefire in Gaza going into effect.

23 Jan 2025 - 23:00
 (23:00 GMT)

WATCH: Volunteers distribute water in Rafah

The Palestinian water authority estimates that Israeli operations have destroyed 70 percent of Gaza’s water infrastructure, with areas like Rafah particularly hard hit.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary has spoken to volunteers seeking to provide access to fresh water in the southern city as they return to their destroyed homes amid the ceasefire.

“Rafah, like other areas in Gaza, is truly ravished and war-stricken, all the infrastructure has been destroyed, there’s no water, electricity or sewage system,” volunteer Wael Abu Mohsen told Al Jazeera.

“We took the initiative to provide fresh water to help displaced citizens returning to what’s left of their homes in Rafah,” he said.

Watch her report below.

23 Jan 2025 - 22:45
 (22:45 GMT)

Gaza police resume activities in all areas

The spokesman for the Gaza Strip police, Muhammad al-Zarqa, has said that all police stations in Gaza have resumed their work and that police forces have been redeployed in all areas.

Al-Zarqa said officers would continue to ensure the safety of citizens across the Strip.

23 Jan 2025 - 22:30
 (22:30 GMT)
Analysis

Israels raids on Jenin a precursor to a ‘year of annexation’

By Marwan Bishara

The raids in Jenin start with trying to break the spirit and the psychology of Palestinians by humiliating them, by making sure that they remain fearful of what’s to come, by making sure that they lack stability and that they lack prosperity.

And that paves the way to potential increased settlement building and increases the chances for future annexation of a large swath of Palestinian territories to Israel.

Now, some Israeli officials are calling 2025 the year of annexation – they think there’s an opportunity here.

On the one hand, the Palestinians are broken and disunited. The Palestinian Authority is on its knees – basically humiliated and weak. Hamas has been degraded in Gaza and does not have much influence in the West Bank.

And the Trump administration is quite in favour of annexation. The American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, is a Christian Zionist who does not believe that Palestine is occupied.

It’s unimaginable, but we may have a new US administration that could be worse than the previous genocidal administration.

23 Jan 2025 - 22:15
 (22:15 GMT)

UN says 653 aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said 653 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on the fifth day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

OCHA cited information received from Israeli authorities and the United States, Egypt and Qatar, the guarantors of the ceasefire agreement.

23 Jan 2025 - 22:00
 (22:00 GMT)

If you’re just joining us

Here are the latest developments:

  • Israel’s military chief of staff and the head of the Shin Bet security agency have issued a statement saying they are preparing for new operations in Jenin that will “move the camp to a different situation”, amid reports of ongoing clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian fighters.
  • UNRWA has said that while displaced Palestinians in Gaza are returning to their homes, most of them are destroyed and can no longer be used.
  • Hezbollah has warned that if Israeli forces do not fully withdraw from Lebanon by Sunday as stipulated by the ceasefire deal, it would be a “blatant” violation of the agreement.
  • Yemen’s Houthi rebels have said their group’s designation by the United States as a “terrorist organisation” was a result of their support for the “oppressed Palestinian people”.
23 Jan 2025 - 21:45
 (21:45 GMT)

Qatar calls on international community to confront Jenin violations

In a statement, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry says it considers Israel’s ongoing operations in Jenin a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights”.

It called on the international community to “assume its responsibilities in confronting these violations” and to work to ensure full protection of civilians.

Israel’s major raid of the refugee camp has stretched on for three days, with at least 12 Palestinians killed and wide-scale destruction of property reported.

23 Jan 2025 - 21:30
 (21:30 GMT)

Arab League chief calls on UN to defend UNRWA mandate

We reported earlier that Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit has addressed the UN Security Council.

During his speech, Aboul Gheit said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, was an essential pillar for stability in the region and demanded that the Security Council fulfil its duty of defending it.

He warned that Israel’s ban on the agency’s activities, which is set to take effect on Tuesday, would upend its “irreplaceable role in serving the Palestinian refugees”.

23 Jan 2025 - 21:00
 (21:00 GMT)

Israeli court orders evictions of 26 Palestinian families in Jerusalem area

The Wafa news agency reports that an Israeli court has issued eviction orders for 26 families in the Batn al-Hawa neighbourhood in the Silwan district of occupied East Jerusalem.

The court ruled that the homes, where 154 people live, were built on land owned by Jewish people before 1948, the year the Israeli state was formed.

The eviction orders will be carried out within the next six months, the news agency said.

23 Jan 2025 - 20:45
 (20:45 GMT)

Israeli military details opening fire in Gaza during ceasefire

In a post on X, Avichay Adraee, the Arabic language spokesperson for the Israeli military, says its forces have opened fire several times over the past day in Gaza despite the ceasefire.

The post did not give specific locations but said at least one incident occurred in Rafah and another elsewhere in the southern Gaza Strip.

It said the gunfire was in response to actions of armed fighters, adding that the military “will continue to take whatever action is necessary to remove the immediate threat” to soldiers.

While the ceasefire has generally held, an Israeli sniper killed a Palestinian child in Rafah on Monday. The military said later that it was responding to “threats”.

23 Jan 2025 - 20:30
 (20:30 GMT)

Gaza ceasefire ‘not a permanent solution’, Arab League chief says

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit says the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip “is not a permanent solution”, adding that peace can only be achieved by creating an independent Palestinian state.

Describing Israel’s 15-month assault on Gaza as a “war of genocide”, Gheit told the UN Security Council: “The basis for peace can only be achieved by the realisation of the Palestinian people of their right to an independent state on the borders of June 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

He said Israel’s oppression of Palestinians is “a threat to international peace and security” and its war “did not stop at the borders of Gaza or Palestine but has spilled over and its flames have reached the region”.

23 Jan 2025 - 20:15
 (20:15 GMT)

Al Jazeera says correspondent’s arrest latest attempt to block Jenin coverage

The Al Jazeera Network has issued a statement saying the arrest of its occupied West Bank correspondent Muhammad al-Atrash by Palestinian security services “can only be explained as an attempt to block the media coverage of the occupation’s attack in Jenin”.

“The arbitrary actions of the Palestinian Authority are unfortunately identical to the occupation’s targeting of the Al Jazeera Network,” it said.

“We value the positions and voices that stand in solidarity and defend colleague Muhammad al-Atrash and the freedom of the press.”

The network said the journalist was brought before a court in Hebron after being arrested this morning while covering the events in Jenin “simply for doing his professional duty as a journalist”.

“We confirm that these practices will not hinder our ongoing professional coverage of the facts unfolding in the West Bank,” Al Jazeera’s statement added.

23 Jan 2025 - 20:00
 (20:00 GMT)

Gaza municipality says 70 percent of roads destroyed or damaged

The spokesman for the Gaza municipality, Asim Nabih, tells Al Jazeera that while roads have been reopened to allow for the return of displaced Palestinians, more than 70 percent of them have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli bombardments.

Nabih said the municipality had devised a recovery plan but would need “everyone’s support”.

“The list of needs has reached the international organisations and institutions, and we hope for their urgent intervention,” he added.

23 Jan 2025 - 19:45
 (19:45 GMT)

Jenin resident recounts fleeing camp during Israeli siege

Ahmed Hawashin was in the Jenin refugee camp when the Israeli military raided it on Tuesday.

As the sound of Israeli drones and warplanes attacking the camp grew louder, Hawashin left his home.

“As the conditions worsened, we moved from one neighbourhood to the next,” he said.

As the attacks grew closer, he remembers being trapped in a shrinking area with dozens of other people looking for safety.

They then decided to try exiting the refugee camp through the western gate despite the ongoing fighting around them. “We started walking on foot, but many of the people were elderly or disabled,” he said.

They walked for a couple of kilometres before finding an Israeli checkpoint and a Red Crescent ambulance stationed at the western gate, he said.

23 Jan 2025 - 19:30
 (19:30 GMT)

Palestinians fleeing Jenin refugee camp arrested at checkpoints

By Hamdah Salhut

Reporting from Amman, Jordan

Al Jazeera is reporting from Amman, Jordan, because it has been banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp have been forced to flee their homes after receiving forced evacuation orders via drones and loudspeakers on Jeeps, but the Israeli government has denied issuing any such orders.

The Israeli military has set up several different roadblocks in the area and, as people flee, they are checked and some have been detained. That includes women and children along with men.

Medics say it’s difficult to retrieve people who are injured because of these roadblocks and that there are people who have been shot by the Israeli military who are bleeding in the streets.

These kinds of raids have only increased in size and scale across the West Bank since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

23 Jan 2025 - 19:15
 (19:15 GMT)

NGO files war crimes complaint with ICC against Israeli rabbi soldier

The Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against an Israeli rabbi soldier for war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

The complaint is based on Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv’s criminal responsibility under the Rome Statute, the NGO said in a statement.

The NGO urged the ICC to arrest Zarbiv, a member of the Givati Brigade, “without delay”, stating his actions cannot go “unchallenged”.

Zarbiv appeared in a televised interview on Wednesday where he admitted to his role in destroying civilian buildings in cities across Gaza, including homes, schools, hospitals and aid facilities.

He also said he incited violence and hatred, endorsing the killing of Palestinian civilians and advocating the destruction of their communities.

Zarbiv bragged about operating a D9 bulldozer, detailing how he deliberately demolished homes and obliterated Gaza’s infrastructure.

He also confirmed the Givati Brigade’s systematic targeting of civilian areas, rendering entire areas uninhabitable.

Further evidence includes footage from February 7, 2024, showing Zarbiv and his unit attacking unarmed Palestinian civilians in Khan Younis with hand grenades and live fire.

23 Jan 2025 - 19:00
 (19:00 GMT)

Israeli army says no forced evacuation order issued for Jenin camp

Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp have told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces sent out a warning with drones asking all residents to evacuate.

But Israel denied issuing any such order. “There have been no evacuation orders for the people of Jenin,” David Mencer, Israel’s government spokesman, said.

“People that live in Jenin not connected with terrorism are free to leave, to get away from our action.”

23 Jan 2025 - 18:45
 (18:45 GMT)

In visit to Lebanon, Saudi foreign minister calls for Israel’s complete withdrawal

Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat has visited Lebanon for the first time in a decade after it elected its first president in more than two years and appointed a new prime minister.

Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said he had great confidence in the new leadership’s ability to “work on the necessary reforms to build safety, stability and a united Lebanon”.

Gulf countries have been concerned about Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies’ rising influence in the Lebanese government, and the situation eventually led to a diplomatic crisis in 2021.

He also reiterated Riyadh’s support for the US-brokered ceasefire that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah and called for the “complete withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from Lebanese territory”.

There are reports that Israel is planning to prolong its military presence in Lebanon beyond the deadline established by the ceasefire, a move Hezbollah said was “unacceptable”.