JENIN, West Bank — Israeli tanks moved into the occupied West Bank on Sunday for the first time in decades in what Palestinian authorities called a “dangerous escalation,” after the defense minister said troops will remain in parts of the territory for a year and tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled cannot return.
News organizations saw several tanks move along unpaved tracks into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel.
Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the northern West Bank on Jan. 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold — and has expanded it to nearby areas.
Palestinians view such raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule. The deadly raids have caused destruction in urban areas.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “increase the intensity of the activity to thwart terrorism” in all refugee camps in the West Bank.
“We will not allow the return of residents, and we will not allow terrorism to return and grow,” he said.
Earlier, Katz said he had instructed the military to prepare for “an extended stay” in some of the West Bank’s urban refugee camps, from where he said about 40,000 Palestinians have fled, leaving the areas “emptied of residents.” That figure was confirmed by the United Nations.
The camps are home to descendants of Palestinians who fled or were forced to flee during wars with Israel decades ago. It was not clear how long Palestinians would be prevented from returning. Katz said the troops would stay “for the coming year.” Netanyahu said they would stay “as long as needed.”
Tanks were last deployed in the territory in 2002, when Israel fought a deadly Palestinian uprising.
The Palestinian foreign ministry called the Israeli moves “a dangerous escalation of the situation in the West Bank,” and urged the international community in a statement to intervene in what it termed Israel’s illegal “aggression.”
“Even if they stay, we will return to the camp at the end,” said Mohamed al-Sadi, one of those displaced from Jenin. “This camp is ours. We have no other place to go.”
The West Bank raids come at a sensitive time, as the truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza remains tenuous.
Israel said early Sunday it was delaying the latest release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners until it gets assurances that Hamas stops what Israel calls “humiliating” handovers of hostages.
The 620 prisoners should have been released shortly after six Israeli hostages in Gaza were freed Saturday — five of them in staged ceremonies criticized by the U.S. and Red Cross as cruel.
With a week left in the ceasefire’s first phase, Israel and Hamas do not appear to have begun negotiations on its second one. The truce’s collapse could lead to renewed fighting in Gaza, where Netanyahu said 63 hostages remain, including the remains of a soldier captured in 2014.