Israeli Minister Says Army Applying Lessons from Gaza in West Bank Operation

Israeli soldiers run to take position in Jenin camp during the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. (EPA)
Israeli soldiers run to take position in Jenin camp during the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. (EPA)
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Israeli Minister Says Army Applying Lessons from Gaza in West Bank Operation

Israeli soldiers run to take position in Jenin camp during the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. (EPA)
Israeli soldiers run to take position in Jenin camp during the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. (EPA)

Israel's defense minister said on Tuesday forces were applying lessons learned in Gaza as a major operation continued in Jenin which the military said was aimed at countering Iranian-backed armed groups in the volatile West Bank city.

A military spokesperson declined to give details but said the operation was "relatively similar" to but in a smaller area than one last August, in which hundreds of Israeli troops backed by drones and helicopters raided Jenin and other flashpoint cities in the occupied West Bank.

It was the third major incursion by the Israeli army in less than two years into Jenin, a longtime major stronghold of armed groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which said its forces were fighting Israeli troops.

At least four Palestinians were wounded on Tuesday, after 10 were killed a day earlier, Palestinian health services said, and residents reported constant gunfire and explosions.

Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said the fighters' increasing use of roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices were a particular focus of the operation, which included armored bulldozers to tear up roads in the refugee camp adjacent to the city.

As the operation continued, many Palestinians left their homes in the camp, a crowded township for descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war of Israel's creation.

"Thank God, we were at home, we went out and asked an ambulance to take us out," said a woman who gave her name as Um Mohammad.

Before the raid, which came two weeks after a shooting attack blamed by Israel on gunmen from Jenin, roadblocks and checkpoints had been thrown up across the West Bank in an effort to slow down movement across the territory.

As the raid began, Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces pulled out after having conducted a weeks-long operation to try to reassert control over the refugee camp, dominated by Palestinian factions that are hostile to the PA, which exercises limited governance in parts of the West Bank.

The operation came just two days after the launch of a ceasefire deal in Gaza and exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, with Israeli troops pulling back from their positions in many areas of the enclave.

LEARNING FROM GAZA

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Jenin raid marked a shift in the military's security plan in the West Bank and was "the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza".

"We will not allow the arms of the Iranian regime and radical Sunni Islam to endanger the lives of (Israeli) settlers (in the West Bank) and establish a terrorist front east of the state of Israel," he said in a statement.

Israel's campaign in Gaza, following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by bands of Hamas-led gunmen, has left much of the coastal enclave in ruins after 15 months of bombardment. The military has said it has refined its urban warfare tactics in the light of its experience in Gaza, but Shoshani declined to provide details of how such lessons were being applied in Jenin.

Israel considers Palestinian armed groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad that are backed by Iran as part of a multifront war waged by an axis that includes Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

Newly installed US President Donald Trump has appointed a string of senior officials with close ties to the settler movement, and his return to the White House has been welcomed by hardline pro-settler ministers who have pledged to expand settlement building in the West Bank.

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war. Most countries deem Israel's settlements on territory taken in war to be illegal. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.



New Lebanese Govt to Steer Clear of Hezbollah’s ‘Army, People, Resistance’ Equation

A handout picture released by the Lebanese presidency shows President Joseph Aoun (font-C) posing for a family picture of Lebanon's new government at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on February 11, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
A handout picture released by the Lebanese presidency shows President Joseph Aoun (font-C) posing for a family picture of Lebanon's new government at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on February 11, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
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New Lebanese Govt to Steer Clear of Hezbollah’s ‘Army, People, Resistance’ Equation

A handout picture released by the Lebanese presidency shows President Joseph Aoun (font-C) posing for a family picture of Lebanon's new government at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on February 11, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency / AFP)
A handout picture released by the Lebanese presidency shows President Joseph Aoun (font-C) posing for a family picture of Lebanon's new government at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on February 11, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency / AFP)

The new Lebanese government held its first meeting on Tuesday, forming a committee tasked with drafting its ministerial statement that is expected to drop the “army, people and resistance” term that justifies Hezbollah’s weapons possession in Lebanon.

Ministerial statements in recent years have all endorsed this equation, but with the Iran-backed party severely weakened after the Israeli war on Lebanon and its grip over political life slipping, the term is expected to be dropped.

There is optimism that the statement could be completed within days and that it would focus on President Joseph Aoun’s inaugural speech and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s remarks after he was named to his post.

Aoun had stressed during his speech the need to limit the possession of weapons in Lebanon to the state.

The committee is comprised of Salam, his deputy Tarek Mitri, Finance Minister Yassine Jaber, Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh, Industry Minister Issa al-Khoury and Transportation and Public Works Minister Fayez Rasamny. It held its first meeting on Tuesday.

The statement is expected to be “brief and to the point.”

Chairing the first cabinet meeting at the Baabda presidential palace, Aoun underscored the importance of reforms in Lebanon.

“It is important to restore trust, starting with fighting corruption and carrying out administrative, judicial and security appointments,” he told the ministers.

On Tuesday evening, Salam said during a televised interview, which included Asharq Al-Awsat, that the ministerial statement must address all challenges, starting with the continued Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories, as well as reconstruction of areas devastated by the war.

Responding to a question by Asharq Al-Awsat, he declared that the statement must “emphasize the full implementation of United Nations Security Council resolution 1701 and ceasefire understandings.”

It must also commit to the reconstruction process, he added.

Other challenges include financial, economic and political reforms, he went on to say, stressing that his government will be focused on “reform and salvation”.

Lebanon wants Israel to fully withdraw from Lebanese territories and “we will continue to resort to diplomacy and politics to make sure that happens” before the February 18 deadline for the pullout, Salam stressed.

He underlined the importance of diplomatic pressure on Israel, stressing that Lebanon is “performing its role in full by deploying the army and seriously approaching the implementation of resolution 1701. We have not shirked away from our responsibilities.”