Katz says IDF troops will remain deployed to refugee camps in northern West Bank

Defense Minister Israel Katz says IDF troops will remain deployed to the northern West Bank refugee camps at least until the end of the year.

In January, the military launched an offensive against terror operatives in the northern West Bank, focusing on the refugee camps in the Jenin and Tulkarem areas.

Katz says the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps were hotbeds of terror, funded and armed by Iran, to act as another front against Israel.

In the past eight months, Katz says the IDF carried out an “intensive” offensive, during which residents of the camps were evacuated, gunmen were killed, and infrastructure used by terror groups were destroyed.

“The IDF will remain inside the camps at this stage, at least until the end of the year, under my directives,” Katz says in statement.

“Today there is no terror in the camps, and the scope of terror alerts in Judea and Samaria [West Bank] has dropped by 80%,” he adds.