At least seven people were killed in an Israeli military operation on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to Palestinian health officials, as the Israel Defense Forces announced a new “large-scale” offensive in the area for a third day ceasefire in the small Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank, which, unlike Gaza, has long been militarily occupied by Israel and is not controlled by Hamas, reported the casualties from the new Israel Defense Forces operation.

In a statement released by his office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the IDF and police forces had “launched a large-scale and significant military operation to root out terrorism in Jenin.”

Naming Operation Iron Wall, Netanyahu called it “one step toward our goal of strengthening security” in the West Bank and “acting methodically and decisively against the Iranian axis wherever it sends its weapons.”

Jenin has been the focus of Israeli attacks during the 15-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with the Palestinian Authority, which rules part of the West Bank, launching its own incursion into the area late last year.

Violence has increased in the West Bank During the Gaza war, which Israel says is acting to eliminate Iran-backed militants, the Palestinian Health Ministry says more than 800 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in the West Bank since the war began against Hamas. by after the attacks on October 7, 2023. Several Israelis were also killed during recent Palestinian attacks.

The IDF launched its new operation hours after President Trump rescinded Biden-era executive orders authorizing US sanctions against people who disturb the peace in the occupied West Bank, mostly targeting Israeli settlers.

The Biden administration used the executive order to impose a series of sanctions on extremist immigrants accused of violence against Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Israeli settlements and smaller outposts along the West Bank are illegal under international law, according to the UN's highest court, the International Court of Justice. led Last summer, Israel ordered an end to settlement activity and an end to what it called an “illegal” occupation, a ruling that is not legally binding and which was condemned by the Israeli government.

Settlers have celebrated the incoming Trump administration, believing it will take a more benign approach to illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory.

In his first term, Mr. Trump took unprecedented steps to support Israel's territorial claims, including Recognizing Jerusalem as the capital Moving the US embassy there and recognizing the Israeli embassy Seizing the Golan Heights.

After Mr. Trump's re-election In November, Israel's far-right finance minister suggested that the country would seek to annex the occupied West Bank by 2025.

Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of Israel's far-right Religious Zionist Party, said at the time that he believed Israel could work with a second Trump administration to promote annexation of the West Bank.

“I am confident that we will be able to work closely with President-elect Trump and all members of the incoming administration to promote the common values ​​and interests of both countries, to strengthen the strength and security of the State of Israel. to expand the framework of peace and stability in the Middle East based on strength and faith and recognition of the indisputable historical ownership of the entire Land of Israel to the people of Israel,” he said in a social media post.

The settlements are seen as an obstacle to a potential two-state solution, the long-standing US-backed policy of creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel, because the more Israeli Jews live in the occupied territory, the less likely it seems that Israel will ever be. relinquish control of the land to become part of a Palestinian state.