Israeli tanks deployed to the West Bank on Sunday morning for the first time in over 20 years, as the Israel Defense Forces said it was expanding an ongoing counter-terrorism operation in the north of the territory.

Defense Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, said he had instructed the IDF to stay for at least the next year in West Bank refugee camps that have been cleared of terror operatives and civilians, and not allow some 40,000 displaced Palestinians to return.

Palestinian media outlets published images showing three Merkava tanks near the West Bank city of Jenin.

The IDF confirmed the reports a short while later, saying that a platoon from the 188th Armored Brigade was preparing to operate in Jenin “as part of the offensive effort.” An Armored Corps platoon normally consists of two or three tanks.

It marked the first time since the 2002 Operation Defensive Shield that IDF tanks were operating in the West Bank.

The military said the tank deployment came as it expanded its ongoing major offensive in the northern West Bank, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, which was launched on January 21.

As part of the expanded activity, troops of the Nahal Infantry Brigade and the Duvdevan Commando Unit began operations in several villages near Jenin, the military said.

The deployment of tanks and expanded operations come after three empty buses exploded in quick succession in parking lots in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Bat Yam and Holon on Thursday night and the discovery of two more unexploded devices on additional buses in Holon. No casualties were reported as a result of the explosions. According to officials, the botched attack originated from the West Bank.

In a written statement Sunday, Katz said: “40,000 Palestinians have so far evacuated from the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps, and are now empty of residents. UNRWA activity in the camps has also been stopped.”

He said the IDF was clearing “nests of terror” and destroying infrastructure and weapons “on an extensive scale.”

“I instructed the IDF to prepare for a long stay in the camps that were cleared, for the coming year, and not allow residents to return and the terror to return and grow,” Katz said.

“We will not return to the reality that was in the past. We will continue to clear refugee camps and other terror centers to dismantle the battalions and terror infrastructure of the extreme Islam that was built, armed, funded, and supported by the Iranian evil axis, in an attempt to establish an eastern terror front,” he added.

The IDF’s crackdown on terror groups began days after a ceasefire agreement was reached in the Gaza Strip, and following recent activity against the groups by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

The operation began in the terror hotbed of Jenin, which has seen dozens of raids since the Hamas October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel from Gaza, which sparked the ongoing war in that territory, as well as a renewed effort to combat terror groups in the West Bank. Israeli forces have since pushed into several other nearby towns, including Tulkarem.

More than 40,100 Palestinians have left their homes since the launch of Operation Iron Wall, according to UNRWA.

Humanitarian officials say they haven’t seen such displacement in the West Bank since the Six Day War, when Israel — under threat from Jordan, Egypt, Syria and other Arab countries — captured the West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, displacing 300,000 Palestinians.

Troops have killed more than 70 Palestinian terror operatives and detained some 300 amid the major ongoing counter-terrorism operation, according to the IDF.

The IDF has acknowledged mistakenly killing several civilians during the operation, including a toddler and a pregnant woman.

Agencies contributed to this report.