Israel Sees West Bank Sweeps Lasting a Year as Palestinians Flee
Israeli soldiers deploy during ongoing raids in the occupied West Bank.
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A month-long sweep for Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank could continue for a year, Israel’s defense minister said, adding that residents who fled will be barred from returning and that a contested UN relief agency’s work there will be halted.
With the Gaza war suspended, Israel on Jan. 21 intensified ground raids and air strikes in three West Bank tenements that grew out of shanties for Palestinians displaced by the 1948 war of its founding. Still referred to as refugee camps and often mired in poverty and lawlessness, they’ve long been incubators for armed Palestinian factions.