TEHRAN – The Israeli regime’s attacks on the West Bank with the goal of annexation are escalating, with Palestinian resistance intensifying and civilian casualties increasing as a result.
The killing of three Palestinians in an Israeli airstrike and raid on the Jenin district on Tuesday marks a dangerous new chapter in the Israeli regime’s military campaign against the occupied West Bank.
While the world’s attention remains focused on the massacre in Gaza, the occupation regime is stepping up operations in the West Bank, which it has illegally occupied since 1967, signaling an attempt not only to crush resistance but also to tighten control amid renewed demands from far-right Zionist leaders for full annexation.
The latest attack occurred in the village of Kafr Qud, west of Jenin, where Israeli occupation forces surrounded the family’s home. After hours of gunfire and explosions, regime aircraft attacked the scene, killing three Palestinians.
Local witnesses reported that Israeli occupation forces surrounded the area with bulldozers and armored vehicles before launching the attack.
Airstrikes within the West Bank, once rare, now reflect broader strategic changes. Regime forces are increasingly relying on heavy weapons and airstrikes in heavily populated Palestinian areas such as Jenin and Nablus.
This change highlights both the Zionist regime’s dissatisfaction with the growing capacity of Palestinian resistance organizations and the Zionist regime’s political pivot toward annexation under an extremist government that rejects all forms of Palestinian statehood.
Earlier, Israeli occupation forces raided areas across Nablus, al-Khalil (Hebron), Ramallah and Jericho, arresting dozens of people, including former prisoners of war, and injuring several others.
Bulldozers are destroying farmland near al-Khalil, while settlers, emboldened by the political support of Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, are escalating violent attacks on Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest.
According to the United Nations, Israeli occupation forces have killed at least 40 Palestinian children in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, with Jenin alone accounting for more than 68 deaths, nearly a third of the total deaths in the occupied territory.
The United Nations has also recorded more than 90 attacks on schools and 80 attacks on settlers since early October, many targeting olive pickers. Human rights experts warn that this pattern points to a systematic campaign to make Palestinian life unsustainable and accelerate annexation.
Palestinians argue that the expansion of armed resistance is a direct response to the occupation, settlement expansion, and lack of political prospects.
Emerging resistance networks in the northern West Bank are comprised primarily of young Palestinians whose formative years have been shaped by continued military rule, nightly raids, and the collapse of peace efforts.
While Gaza dominates the headlines, the West Bank is becoming a second front, with the Israeli regime’s desire to control the territory and the Palestinians’ determination to resist the occupation clashing more sharply than at any time in recent memory.
The increased use of airstrikes signals that the Israeli regime’s military operations in the West Bank are turning into open warfare, erasing any remaining illusions that the Zionist occupation is temporary.