Israel assassinated nine Palestinians in an attack on a vehicle near Balata Camp in Nablus in the northern West Bank and a group of young men in Tulkarm Camp.
A drone attack on a vehicle near Balata camp targeted the leader of the al-Aqsa Brigades affiliated with the Fatah movement, Abdullah Abu Shalal, and killed him along with four of his companions.
The Israeli army published a video of the attack, which turned the vehicle into rubble and left charred bodies.
The Israeli military confirmed it carried out an airstrike with the Shin Bet during the Tulkarem raid, saying the cell headed by Abu Shalal was killed near the camp.
Israel claimed the unit was responsible for one of the two largest networks in the Judea and Samaria region of the West Bank.
The statement accused Abu Shalal of being responsible for several operations carried out in the past year, including a shooting attack in Jerusalem, which resulted in the injury of two Israeli citizens.
The army accused Abu Shalal of planting an explosive device against army forces last October, saying he received funding and directions from Iran.
Another drone killed four Palestinians in the Tulkarm camp shortly after the assassination of young men in the Balata camp.
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas carried out the "al-Aqsa Flood" Operation against Israel, the army has stormed most of the camps in the West Bank, killing and arresting Palestinians, and engaging in clashes in Jenin, Tulkarm, Balata, Jalazoun, Askar, Nour Shams, and al-Fara'a.
The Israeli army has deliberately destroyed the roads and infrastructure and demolished homes.
Fatah official Mounir al-Jaghoub described the situation as an open war on the camps in the West Bank and Gaza.
During an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Jagoub said Israel wants to remove the camps because they represent the symbol of Palestinians' return to their land.
The camps remind the people to return to the lands of 1948, said the official, asserting that the war in the West Bank is no less dangerous than the war in Gaza.
Israel has fully barricaded the West Bank, turning it into ghettos after erecting iron gates, roadblocks, and earth mounds. It has also tightened its measures at military checkpoints.
At the beginning of the war, Israel feared the West Bank would turn into a third front. It did not even wait for Palestinian action and attacked with full force.
As of Wednesday, Israel has killed 43 Palestinians in the West Bank since the beginning of 2024 and 362 since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said Israel's daily killings in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are a comprehensive war of genocide against the Palestinian people.
Abu Rudeina added that the Israeli occupation is trying in various ways to drag the entire region into violence and destruction by continuing its policies of killing, destroying, stealing Palestinian land, and seizing Palestinian funds.
However, a security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that what was happening was similar to an attempt to reoccupy the West Bank.
He warned that Israel engaged in the war to liquidate the Palestinian cause because Tel Aviv believed that the opportunity was ripe for that.
The camps, especially in the northern West Bank, had sparked a new confrontation long before Oct. 7, when gunmen in the Jenin camp formed the Jenin Brigade to confront Israeli forces with weapons.
The clashes in the West Bank are led by young men who are not affiliated with any organizations and have become popular heroes and symbols on social networks.
According to Israel, they are frustrated with the conditions in the West Bank, and they took advantage of the Palestinian Authority's inability to control the situation.
Jagoub believes Israel seeks to dismantle the Authority in Ramallah rather than confront it, saying the war aims to terminate the Oslo agreement.
The official said Tel Aviv aims to portray the PA as powerless and unnecessary and unable to protect its people, hoping to turn Palestinians against it.
They want to dismantle it from within instead of bombing its headquarters, besieging its president, and killing its members, he warned.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has several times launched a significant attack on the Authority, describing it as weak and failed, then said it was not fit to rule.
Netanyahu declared that the biggest mistake that Israel made was signing the Oslo Accords.
Several Israeli ministers have echoed Netanyahu's statements, and some of them, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, went further, demanding the displacement of the Palestinians.
However, Defense Minister Yoav Galant opposed the statement, declaring a vital Authority is in Israel's interest and calling for help to maintain stability in the West Bank.
Jagoub mocked Galant's statements, saying the Israeli army is killing Palestinians under the Minister's orders.
