Report: Jordan fears IDF West Bank ops, settler violence will drive Palestinians across border
Locals describe scenes of destruction in Tulkarem refugee camp; Hamas accuses PA of arresting operatives in Nablus; UK ‘deeply concerned’ by wide-scale operation
Jordan is concerned that Palestinians will seek refuge in the Hashemite Kingdom because of intensified Israeli military operations and extremist settler violence in the West Bank, both of which have been broadly condemned by the international community, the Qatari-owned Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet reported Friday.
According to the report, Jordanian officials fear that as a result of Palestinians crossing into Jordan, sky-high regional tensions will escalate further, leading to increased security risks in the country and across the region as a whole.
Earlier this month, King Abdullah II warned that Jordan would “not allow any escalation in the region to be at the expense of Jordanians or Jordan’s security and safety.”
Echoing the king’s comments, a Jordanian security expert told Al-Araby that “any displacement of the residents of the West Bank will pose an existential threat to Jordan and is absolutely rejected by Jordan and the Palestinian people.”
The outlet also reported concerns among senior Jordanian officials that by leaving the West Bank, Palestinians could become permanently displaced, leaving their land empty and at risk of being taken over by settlers.
This possibility, combined with recent statements by Israeli government ministers that threaten the status quo on the Temple Mount, would destroy “any possibility of a political solution based on the two-state solution, which harms Jordan’s predominant interest in establishing an independent Palestinian state,” a Jordanian analyst posited.
‘We are just like Gaza’
The concerns from Jordan come during an ongoing Israel Defense Forces operation in the northern West Bank launched early Wednesday. The military has been operating mostly in the West Bank city of Tulkarem as well as Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas.
According to Palestinian media, the death toll since the start of the operation had risen to 20 as of Friday morning. The IDF later confirmed this tally.
Palestinian residents of the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem expressed shock and despair Friday at the outcome of an Israeli raid on their refugee camp: bullet-riddled walls, destroyed homes and piles of concrete blocks.
“We are another Gaza, especially in the refugee camps,” said Nayef Alaajmeh, a Nur Shams resident, as he surveyed the damage following a devastating Israeli raid on the camp that ended late on Thursday.
The IDF initially sent bulldozers to tear up paved streets, sending clouds of dust over the targeted areas.
The army says its ongoing northern West Bank operation is focused on dismantling a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror network in the Tulkarem area, as well as in Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas.
AFP footage showed camp residents walking cautiously through streets littered with burnt tires and other debris.
Municipality workers and residents were already working to salvage what they could.
Many residents compared the devastation to that in Gaza, where nearly 11 months of war have left much of the Palestinian territory destroyed.
“Today, we are just like Gaza, war or no war… (but) we are steadfast and the people of Gaza are also steadfast,” said Nabil Abu Shala, another resident of Nur Shams camp.
Fuad Kanuh, who runs a shop on the ground floor of the building where he lives, said gas cylinders exploded during the raid, apparently hit by explosives.
Almost everything in the shop is now charred and blackened by soot, but that did not stop Kanuh from pulling out what he could — an air conditioning unit and a television hanging from a wall.
Nur Shams has been a regular target of Israeli raids. Members of armed groups in the camp no longer wear face masks to conceal their identities, as they consider themselves to be “on the path to martyrdom.”
“The occupation forces have destroyed the infrastructure and vandalized the roads, property and cars,” Abu Mohammed, a fighter in a local terrorist group, told AFP. “They even demolished and vandalized the mosque.”
In the Al-Faraa refugee camp in the nearby city of Tubas, Mohammed Mansur, a member of the central committee of the communist People’s Party, attended a funeral of four Palestinians killed on Wednesday during the Israeli raid.
“Here too they have carried out many massacres and bombings to put pressure on the resistance,” Mansur said.
“They want the people to turn against the resistance, but that will not happen,” he said, as bodies of those killed, wrapped in Palestinian flags, were laid to rest.
Before their burial, the bodies were carried through the camp in a funeral procession, with mourners walking on the streets freshly torn up by Israeli bulldozers.
As the procession advanced, young men brandishing automatic rifles fired into the air.
Hamas: PA supporting IDF
The Qatari-owned New Arab outlet — the English-language edition of Al-Araby Al-Jadeed — reported Friday that Hamas is accusing the Palestinian Authority, the body possessing limited sovereignty over Palestinian civilians in some of the West Bank, of carrying out “an arrest campaign” against its terror operatives in the West Bank.
According to the report, Hamas claimed that the PA has, in recent days, carried out targeted arrests of its “resistance fighters, activists and released prisoners” in Nablus as the terror group faces off against Israeli forces in other cities.
Hamas also accused the PA of cooperating with and supporting IDF operations in Jenin and Tulkarem in recent days without providing evidence. Since its founding 30 years ago, the PA’s security forces have largely cooperated with Israel in mitigating terror threats.
Hamas commander killed in Jenin
The IDF said Friday afternoon that it had killed 20 gunmen and detained 17 wanted Palestinians thus far in the West Bank operation, adding that troops have also destroyed dozens of explosive devices and seized many weapons.
The ongoing operation also saw the killing on Friday of Wissam Hazem, the commander of Hamas’s military wing in Jenin, according to an earlier joint statement from the IDF, Shin Bet security agency and police.
The IDF said troops spotted a cell of gunmen in the Jenin area town of Zababdeh. Hazem was among the suspects in the car.
Undercover Border Police officers opened fire at the car, killing Hazem, while the other two gunmen fled, the statement said. A short while later, a drone strike killed the pair.
The military released drone footage showing the moment the Border Police officers ambushed Hazem and the drone strikes carried out a short while later.
Police released a separate clip from body cameras on the officers, showing them blocking the car that Hazem was in and exchanging fire with him.
According to Israel, Hazem was involved in numerous shooting and bombing attacks and was advancing additional attacks.
The other two gunmen, killed by the drone, were named by the IDF as Maysara Masharqa and Arafat Amer.
The military said they were Hamas members working under Hazem and were also involved in shooting attacks, including against Israeli communities near the West Bank security barrier.
Inside the car and on the bodies of the terror operatives, the IDF says it recovered assault rifles, handguns and other equipment, adding that no troops were hurt in the incident.
Early Thursday, Israeli forces killed five Palestinian gunmen who were hiding in a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, including the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s local wing in the Nur Shams camp, the military said.
Another founding member of Islamic Jihad’s local wing in Tulkarem was detained.
The large operation, involving the Kfir Brigade, the Duvdevan Commando Unit, combat engineers and Border Police, was expected to last at least several days, military sources said Wednesday.
The ongoing operation was focused on dismantling a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror network in the Tulkarem area, as well as in Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas.
While the army has said it has seen a relative decline in terror coming from the northern West Bank in recent months, it has also seen continued attempts by terror operatives to launch attacks.
After a series of smaller operations in the northern West Bank, the IDF decided to launch a more extensive operation, targeting three areas at once — Jenin, Tulkarem and Far’a — where terror operatives were seen as operating together, military sources said.
The large-scale operation was also launched in part following an intended suicide bombing in Tel Aviv earlier this month.
The IDF has carried out several drone strikes amid the operation. In the past 10 months, the IDF has carried out more than 60 airstrikes in the West Bank, using drones, attack helicopters and fighter jets.
A Border Police officer was lightly hurt and an IDF soldier was moderately wounded amid the operations on Wednesday and Thursday.
British concerns
The British government said Friday it was “deeply concerned” by the ongoing West Bank operation, warning that the risk of instability is serious and that there is an urgent need for de-escalation.
“We continue to call on Israeli authorities to exercise restraint, adhere to international law, and clamp down on the actions of those who seek to inflame tensions,” a spokesperson for Britain’s Foreign Office said in a statement.
“We recognize Israel’s need to defend itself against security threats, but we are deeply worried by the methods Israel has employed and by reports of civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.”
The spokesperson added that the UK “strongly condemns settler violence,” and that it is in no one’s interest for further conflict and instability to spread in the West Bank.
Tensions in Israel and the West Bank have soared since October 7, when terrorists burst through the Gaza border into Israel in a Hamas-led attack, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,850 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,960 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry, more than 670 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 27 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another five members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
