The Israeli military killed at least 10 Palestinians, including a child, in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday as its prime minister announced the start of a "large-scale military operation" in the restive city of Jenin – just two days after the Gaza ceasefire came into effect. Israel's security cabinet launched the military offensive – which involved the Israeli military, police and Shin Bet security agency – to "eradicate terrorism in Jenin," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. The operation is called "Iron Wall," he said. In response, Hamas issued a statement calling for "people in the West Bank and its revolutionary youth to mobilize and escalate the clash with the occupation army at all points of contact with it." The Palestinian state news agency Wafa said Israeli warplanes struck Jenin and Israeli forces, including sharpshooters and armored vehicles, were surrounding the city's refugee camp and stopping ambulances from entering. Videos from local journalists showed a large number of armored vehicles, including bulldozers, entering Jenin. The Palestinian Health Ministry said at least 10 people – nine men and one teenage boy – were killed and 40 injured in the city. It is not yet clear whether those killed were bystanders or engaged in hostilities with Israeli forces. Videos from the scene seem to show that at least two were civilians who appeared to be unarmed. Local residents told CNN that a man who was shot and later pronounced dead in a hospital in Jenin was a civilian. Palestinian Islamic Jihad's armed wing Al Quds Brigades said its fighters were firing at advancing Israeli troops around the refugee camp. Islamic Jihad said Israeli military operation is an attempt by Netanyahu to save his "faltering government coalition" and spoil the "joy" after Palestinian prisoners were released in the West Bank as part of the Gaza truce. "We call on our people throughout the occupied West Bank to confront this criminal campaign by all means, thwart its goals, and consolidate the enemy's defeat in subduing the will of our people in the West Bank and Gaza," the militant group said in a statement. This latest offensive comes after the Israeli military carried out a major and deadly military operation in the northern West Bank in August and September. That campaign was called "Operation Summer Camps." Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right nationalist who opposed the Gaza ceasefire, said in a statement Tuesday that security in the West Bank had been added to the country's "war goals." CNN has asked the Prime Minister's Office for confirmation of that claim. "After Gaza and Lebanon, today, with God's help, we have begun to change the security concept in Judea and Samaria and in the campaign to eradicate terrorism in the region," he said, using the biblical name by which Israelis refer to the West Bank. Smotrich had publicly toyed with quitting the Israeli government over the Gaza ceasefire, but decided to stay in the cabinet after saying he had received assurances from Netanyahu on his commitment to continue Israel's military operations. There has been a significant uptick in violence in the occupied West Bank since the ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Sunday. On Monday, the outgoing Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said the military "must be ready for significant operations" in the occupied West Bank. The United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) in Ramallah said Monday that it was "alarmed" by this new wave of violence by Israeli settlers and security forces in the West Bank. Israeli security forces shot and killed a reportedly unarmed 14-year-old Palestinian boy on Sunday, the OHCHR said in a statement on Monday. The OHCHR said "scores of settlers" stormed several Palestinian towns on Sunday, torching houses and vehicles, blocking roads and throwing stones. The attacks continued on Monday, residents of Al-Funduq, a town east of Qalqilya, told CNN. They said a large group of armed settlers set fire to vehicles and shops in the town, throwing stones and firing towards houses before moving to a nearby village where they burnt two tractors and a plantation nursery, as well as caused damage to a house. The international community has long condemned settler violence which has increased in recent years and gone mostly unpunished. The US, under the Biden administration, had imposed sanctions against several Israeli settlers allegedly responsible for deadly violence but those sanctions have now been rescinded, with the decision to do so among the slew of executive orders US President Donald Trump signed upon taking office on Monday. The following day, Trump's nominee to be US ambassador to the UN, Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, said she agreed with the view espoused by a number of far-right politicians in Israel that Israel has "a biblical right" to annex the West Bank. Jewish settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law and the United Nations' top court said in July that Israel's presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was illegal. Regarding the latest bout of violence, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that "settlers, backed, escorted, and with full cooperation (of) the Israeli army," attacked Palestinian communities in the West Bank. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on settler attacks in several parts of the territory. The IDF said it and the police responded to reports of riots in Al-Funduq on Monday and two settlers were shot by the police during that response, according to a statement from the police. Israel's emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) said it treated two casualties, one in "critical condition" and one in "serious condition." Both patients had "penetrating injuries" and were evacuated to the Meir hospital, according to the MDA. A joint statement from several Israeli commanders said on Tuesday that initial investigation indicated that "dozens of Israeli civilians, some of whom were masked, arrived at the area of Al-Funduq, instigated riots, set property on fire, and caused damage." The IDF's response to the settler attack in Al-Funduq sparked more violence on Tuesday. The police said 17 people were arrested and three police officers injured during a protest over the shooting of the settlers. Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 851 Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack, including 173 children. Meanwhile, 2024 was the third-deadliest year for Israelis in the West Bank since data collection began in 2008, according to the UN, which recorded the deaths of 34 Israelis – 15 soldiers and 19 civilians. Of those civilians, seven were settlers. — CNN
