JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare visit on Friday to troops operating in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, ordering the military to intensify its raids in the area and drawing condemnation from the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu went to the Tulkarem refugee camp in the north of the Palestinian territory a day after bombs exploded on multiple buses in central Israel, with Israeli officials saying the devices used were similar to ones employed in the occupied territory.

The prime minister’s office said he had visited the camp and ordered more “operational activity” in the northern West Bank. Days after a ceasefire took effect in Gaza, Israel launched a large-scale military operation in the territory’s north“, spanning multiple refugee camps near the cities of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas. At least 51 Palestinians, including seven children, have been killed since the military assault began, according to the UN.

Three Israeli soldiers have also been killed during the same period, it said. On Friday, a 13-year-old girl was killed by military “live fire” in Tulkarem, the Palestinian ministry of health in Ramallah said in a statement.

Palestinian Authority condemns Netanyahu’s statement

The girl’s death came a day after another Palestinian was killed when his car was struck by an armoured military vehicle just outside of Tulkarem camp, governor Abdallah Kamil said.

The military offensive has displaced at least 40,000 people, according to the UN’s office for humanitarian coordination.

It is the longest in the West Bank since the Second Intifada, a Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.

Netanyahu alleged that the army was doing “very important work against Hamas and other terrorist organisations’ desire to harm us”.

In Tulkarem, as in Jenin, the Israeli army has demolished dozens of homes with explosives, clearing entire roads through the densely built camps. Armoured D9 bulldozers have wreaked havoc in the camps of the area, upturning tarmac, cutting off the water supply as they break pipes, and stripping buildings of their facades.

Palestinians on social media expressed shock at a photo shared by Netanyahu’s office showing him meeting army officers in a command centre that appeared to have been established inside a camp resident’s home.

PA condemns Netanyahu

The foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority condemned in a statement the “storming by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu… into the northern occupied West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem”.

Violence in the West Bank has surged since the conflict in Gaza broke out in Oct 2023. Israeli troops or settlers have killed 898 Palestinians since the start of the conflict in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2025