Netanyahu says Israeli forces ‘levelling streets’ in West Bank’s Tulkarm camp

Israeli PM says army is expanding major operation in occupied West Bank

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Tulkarm refugee camp. Maayan Toaf

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is expanding a major military operation in the occupied West Bank as tensions spiral ahead of a hostage-prisoner swap with Hamas set to take place on Saturday.

Mr Netanyahu, speaking in the ruined and largely empty Tulkarm Refugee Camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, drew particular attention to an “extremely serious” suspected terror attack on Thursday in which three empty buses exploded in a Tel Aviv suburb.

Mr Netanyahu’s trip comes as Israeli forces continue an operation dubbed “Iron Wall” that has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroyed vast amounts of private property and infrastructure, stoking fears that Israel is seeking to replicate its war on Gaza in the West Bank. Israel said it is launching the operation to fight terror.

“In the past year, we have greatly increased our activity,” Mr Netanyahu said to troops at the scene. “We are entering the strongholds of terrorism, levelling entire streets and eliminating terrorists.”

Israeli soldiers during an ongoing military operation in Jenin and its refugee camp on February 19. EPA

Four refugee camps in the north of the region – Jenin, Tulkarm, Nur Shams and El Far’a – have been the worst affected. The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Jenin’s camp is “reportedly almost completely emptied of residents”. The agency also reports Israeli forces using increasingly “advanced weaponry and militarised tactics”, while 17 Israeli air strikes were recorded between February 3 to February 9.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said 51 Palestinians had been killed in the operation as of Thursday. The Palestinian health ministry announced another death on Friday – a 13-year-old girl, Omar Amouri, who was hit by Israeli gunfire in the Jenin camp. The International Rescue Committee said in a statement on Thursday that at least 224 children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since January 2023.

Mr Netanyahu’s address from Tulkarem came shortly after Defence Minister Israel Katz visited to issue similar warnings and promise intensified Israeli operations. “We are at war with extremist Islamic terror and we will win, here, in Gaza and everywhere,” Mr Katz said.

Hostages and prisoners due to be released

The statements come as Israel’s ceasefire deal with Hamas, struck in January, reaches a critical juncture. Six living Israeli hostages are set to be released on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, the last exchange of living Israeli hostages in the first phase of the three-phase deal.

The agreement, widely supported by the Israeli public according to recent polling, has a number of high-profile opponents in Mr Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, who ramped up their calls for Israel to return to fighting in Gaza on Friday after Israeli medical authorities said one of four hostage bodies handed over by Hamas on Thursday was not that of Shiri Bibas.

Hamas said it would "examine these claims with complete seriousness”.