Unprecedented Military Operation Unfolds in Northern West Bank: The Target, the Mystery, and the Tension

The hospital entrance is just behind this army vehicle here. And staff inside the hospital say that since last night, the army has surrounded the building and is searching anyone who wants to leave this street. This road deserted now. One of the main roads through Janine has seen this kind of activity so many times since the Hamas attacks last October. But this operation looks a bit different. It’s part of a much wider, much more coordinated operation across the northern West Bank. These kinds of operations going on in several cities. What’s not entirely clear at the moment is why this operation is taking place now, the kind of extensive operation that people here haven’t seen in decades. Israel’s foreign minister says it’s a counter terrorism operation against what he called terrorist infrastructure backed by Iran. But over the past 10 months, these cities, Janine, Nablus, Tulkarem, have had weekly incursions by the Israeli army. It’s not clear what’s changed, what’s changed in terms of their targeting, what’s changed in terms of their methods. And the Palestinian Authority are warning that continued violence here is going to have dire and dangerous consequences.