Eight people have been killed in the occupied West Bank after Israeli troops carried out a raid in the city of Jenin – an area not covered by the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Israel described it as a “significant and broad military operation” against Palestinian militants, just two days after a long-sought deal to stop the bombing of Gaza in return for the release of Israeli hostages took effect.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said eight people had been killed and 35 people wounded in the city, where Israel has carried out repeated incursions.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, suspected Jewish settlers stormed Palestinian villages, setting cars and properties on fire.
Dozens of masked men attacked homes and businesses, according to officials in Jinsafut and Al-Funduq, roughly 30 miles north of Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had treated 12 people who had been beaten. Israel’s military said the men had thrown rocks at soldiers and that it had launched an investigation.
Just hours later, new president Donald Trump lifted US sanctions against Israelis accused of violence in the West Bank.
The Biden administration’s sanctions were meant to punish radical settlers – and their reversal could set the tone for a Trump presidency that is more tolerant of Israel’s expansion of settlements.
The incidents came as Israel’s military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, announced he was resigning over failures to prevent the 7 October Hamas attacks in 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel and about 250 people were taken hostage.
It triggered a major Israeli response which led to more than 47,000 Palestinians being killed in the densely populated area of Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
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Mr Halevi is the most senior Israeli figure to resign over the security failure.
In his letter of resignation, he said the military, under his command, had “failed in its mission to defend the state of Israel”.
Mr Halevi, who began what was meant to be a three-year term in January 2023, said his resignation would take effect on 6 March.
Hamas responded to Israel’s latest operation in Jenin by calling on Palestinians in the West Bank to step up their own attacks, as the world watches to see whether the ceasefire deal will last.
The West Bank is not covered by the agreement.
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The ceasefire was brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt following months of indirect talks between warring parties Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza, and Israel.
The deal has already led to the release of three female hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday.
Further releases are planned, with the next scheduled for this coming Saturday.
