Israeli tanks gather outside of the occupied West Bank near Jenin, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025
ISRAEL’S defence minister said today troops would remain “for the coming year” in parts of the occupied West Bank.
This follows complaints by Hamas over the decision by Tel Aviv to halt the release of detainees promised under the ceasefire deal.
The Israelis have deepened their crackdown on the Palestinian territory since launching their military offensive on the northern West Bank on January 21 — two days after the ceasefire that paused the war in Gaza took hold. They then expanded it to include other nearby areas.
Israel says it is determined to stamp out resistance in the territory, but Palestinians view such raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where three million Palestinians live under military rule.
The deadly raids have devastated urban areas and displaced tens of thousands.
Palestinian Authority police forces can be seen violently arresting a Palestinian man on 12 March 2017 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has condemned the Palestinian Authority for arresting resistance fighters, and even shooting them, in an “approach that is nationally and popularly rejected, and serves the Israeli occupation regime and its objectives.”
The PFLP stressed on Wednesday that shootings and arrests, which have escalated in Jenin and other cities and refugee camps in the northern occupied West Bank, reflect a “dangerous deviance” in the behaviour of the PA and its security services.
“The responsibility for the unfortunate events witnessed in the city of Jenin, the most dangerous of which is the deliberate shooting of a resistance fighter, fall on the shoulders of the PA’s leadership and its security services,” said the PFLP.
It stressed that Palestinian weapons must be “pointed exclusively” at the Zionist enemy, and that the weapons of resistance are “a red line that must not be crossed.”
The movement explained that this development required the Palestinian forces, factions and national and influential figures to intervene urgently in order to contain these unfortunate events so that they do not get out of control. This is essential, it added, in light of the critical circumstances and the genocide of the Palestinian people, as well as the acceleration of the occupation regime’s Judaisation and annexation operations in the West Bank.
It called for a unified national position that puts pressure on the PA leadership to stop this “destructive” approach immediately and engage in serious national efforts to “support the resistance and confront the occupation regime.”
