The Israeli army is preparing for a major escalation in the occupied West Bank in the coming days, potentially including the seizure of additional Palestinian refugee camps and large-scale military operations, the Hebrew-language Walla website reported Sunday.
اضافة اعلان
According to the report, the Israeli military is preparing for what it described as a “radical treatment of terrorism” in the West Bank, following its announcement that it had completed operations in the Ali al-Taher Heights in southern Lebanon after detonating key Hezbollah tunnels in the area on Thursday evening.
Walla reported: “Although the level of (Palestinian) operations in the West Bank is at its lowest since 2011, the Israeli army is monitoring a series of developments that could change the situation, ranging from increased friction on the ground to a scenario of guns being turned around.”
It added that the Israeli security establishment believes the political leadership may push for the occupation of additional refugee camps and large-scale operations in the northern West Bank.
The website claimed that Hamas leaders abroad are likely to promote plans for attacks against Israelis and Israeli soldiers.
It quoted unnamed Israeli security sources as saying that “the army enjoys broad freedom of action in Judea and Samaria,” the biblical term used for the West Bank, particularly after occupying refugee camps in Samaria, in the northern West Bank, consolidating its presence there and establishing infrastructure to support rapid military movements.
The sources added that Israel is also building military positions to strengthen its control over the area.
Rising Friction
According to the sources, one of the main concerns within Israel’s security establishment is “a new trend involving rising friction on the ground” in the West Bank.
They said the pace of friction is increasing for several reasons, including a sharp rise in the number of new settlements. They pointed to 84 additional settlements alongside 180 already established, as well as around 140 settlement farms and more than 100 illegal outposts.
The sources said these circumstances are forcing the Israeli army to rethink its approach and adopt an updated security concept regarding settlements and farms that have received state approval.
Potential Military Operations
According to the report, the Israeli army’s assessment that its activity in the West Bank may intensify is based on the convergence of several developments affecting the region.
These include Israeli elections scheduled for late October, Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for November, and the Jewish holiday period, which Walla said typically sees increased tensions and friction between settlers and Palestinians.
The report also warned of “major incidents of friction” between Palestinians and settlers amid a rise in what it described as settlers’ “nationalist crime,” which has received extensive coverage in international media, as well as US intervention, particularly as the intensive phase of Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon comes to an end.
At the conclusion of its report, Walla quoted Israeli security sources as saying that Defense Minister Israel Katz could pressure the army to occupy additional refugee camps and carry out large-scale operations, with a focus on the northern West Bank.
On January 21, 2025, Israel launched a military operation in the northern occupied West Bank, during which it occupied Jenin refugee camp in Jenin governorate and the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps in Tulkarm governorate, turning them into what resembled “ghost towns,” killing dozens of Palestinians and displacing around 32,000 people, according to data from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
During the first half of 2026, settlers carried out 3,488 attacks in the West Bank, resulting in the martyrdom of 17 Palestinians and the complete or partial displacement of 26 Bedouin and pastoral communities, in addition to the establishment of 42 new settlement outposts, most of them pastoral, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
Around 750,000 settlers live in 194 settlements and 400 settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and carry out near-daily attacks against Palestinians and their property with the aim of forcibly displacing them from their lands.
The West Bank has witnessed escalating Israeli army raids and settler attacks against Palestinians and their property since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, amid warnings about the consequences of the continued attacks.
Source: Al Ghad / Anadolu Agency
