‘Move or face the consequences’: Claims 10 Palestinians killed in Israeli operation in Palestine’s West Bank

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in the latest Israeli raids, as analysts worry about the long-term reality for civilians on the ground.

Ten Palestinians have been killed in the latest devastating wave of Israeli raids and strikes on several towns in the north of the occupied West Bank.

Two Palestinians were killed in the city of Jenin, four others in a nearby village, and four more in a refugee camp near the town of Tubas, the Red Crescent’s Ahmed Jibril said on Wednesday.

The Israeli army said it was carrying out an “operation to thwart terrorism in Jenin and Tulkarm” in the northern West Bank. The operation comes two days after Israel said it carried out an air strike on the West Bank that the Palestinian Authority reported killed five people.

Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza, with an estimated 640 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops and settlers since Hamas’s October 7 attack.

Civilians who still remain in the war zone have been forced to constantly pack up and flee.

At least 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, according to Israeli officials.

Sam Rose, the director of planning at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said the civilians who still remain in the war zone have been forced to constantly pack up and flee.

Even then, the route to safety is lined with extreme danger.

“The people of Gaza are waking up on every other day to evacuation orders, giving them a very, very short time to move or face the consequences,” Rose said via Al Jazeera.

“This is women, children, the elderly, people who have moved five to 10 times already faced with an impossible dilemma.

“If they stay, they risk bombardment, further destruction, further death. And if they go, they don’t know what’s coming for them. There’s either no space when they get there, or they’ll be in even more squalid conditions than those they left behind. Many unfortunately, tragically, horrifically, have been killed en route.”

Mourners march through the streets after Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

Middle East political analyst Omar Baddar says that after almost a year of all-out conflict, the world has somewhat forgotten about the atrocities being witnessed in Palestine on a daily basis.

“The world is distracted [by what’s been happening in Gaza]. What we’ve seen over the past several months is more than 650 Palestinians being killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers throughout the West Bank,” he said on an Al Jazeera broadcast this week.

“In any other context, this would be a crisis that everybody would be talking about. But this kind of passed without people really paying attention.”

The conflict has completely reduced neighbourhoods to rubble.

Israel asserted that it would be able to eradicate Hamas quickly after the October 7 attacks. But the devastation in Gaza has continued 10 months on without any decisive victory.

Just like the brutal stalemate in Ukraine, analysts fear the current conflict in Gaza will fade to obscurity for average people around the world, who have been inundated with crushing pictures and headlines of multiple conflicts over the past two years.

“I think Israel is under tremendous pressure because of the fact that they are stuck in Gaza without a strategic victory,” Baddar continued.

“They promised that they would be able to defeat Hamas quickly. That they would be able to free the hostages. They have been able to achieve neither of these things. I think whenever Israel finds itself cornered and is in desperate need of a victory for its public,” he said.

“I think Netanyahu is desperate for some sort of image of an accomplishment and he thinks by launching this massive, large-scale operation in the West Bank … Israel can claim some sort of victory at the end of this.”

Palestinians mourn during a funeral of relatives, the morning after they were killed in an Israeli air strike.

The latest attacks on Gaza came days after another flare-up between Israel and Hezbollah.

A high-ranking Israeli official shed light on what it was like to be on the ground as Hezbollah launched another attack on the nation.

Lieutenant Colonel Sarit Zehavi, a former intelligence official, says attacks like the ones seen this past weekend will persist until Hezbollah is dismantled.

Speaking on UK news platform Channel 4, Zehavi said Hezbollah was lying about the fact it had only targeted military sites and that it did not wish to escalate conflict further.

“This is a complete lie. I have been awake since 4.30am today, first by the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) attacks and the attacks by Hezbollah,” she said, mentioning how local Israelis were forced to flee to nearby bomb shelters in the dead of the night.

“Hezbollah is using inaccurate weapons and then says they are only targeting military bases.”

Zehavi says she is most concerned with keeping Israeli civilians from harm, as the nation faces one of its most turbulent periods in decades.

There has been criticism levelled at the Israeli government for overreaching in its mission towards a securer nation, but Zehavi believes prosperity will only come once all the known terrorist organisations threatening her country’s borders are extinguished.

“It doesn’t make Israelis more safe by eliminating senior commanders. But eliminating capabilities of Hezbollah will make Israelis more safe,” she continued.

She also believes a ceasefire in Gaza would not immediately make the lives of regular Israelis safer.

“Are we doomed to relive the next massacre of our children? Is this acceptable?” she said.

“I think the international community and Israel can work together on this.”

Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said the “main target” was the Glilot military intelligence base near Tel Aviv, which Israeli media reported is home to the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency.

Israel’s military said there were “no hits” on the base.

Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,405 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not break down civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in their attack, 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.