Why is Israel Launching Crackdown in the West Bank after the Gaza Ceasefire?

Israeli army vehicles are seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed).
Israeli army vehicles are seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed).
TT

Why is Israel Launching Crackdown in the West Bank after the Gaza Ceasefire?

Israeli army vehicles are seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed).
Israeli army vehicles are seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed).

In the days since a fragile ceasefire took hold in the Gaza Strip, Israel has launched a major military operation in the occupied West Bank and suspected Jewish settlers have rampaged through two Palestinian towns.

The violence comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces domestic pressure from his far-right allies after agreeing to the truce and hostage-prisoner exchange with the Hamas militant group. US President Donald Trump has, meanwhile, rescinded the Biden administration's sanctions against Israelis accused of violence in the territory.

It's a volatile mix that could undermine the ceasefire, which is set to last for at least six weeks and bring about the release of dozens of hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, most of whom will be released into the West Bank.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Escalations in one area frequently spill over, raising further concerns that the second and far more difficult phase of the Gaza ceasefire - which has yet to be negotiated - may never come.

Dozens of masked men rampaged through two Palestinian villages in the northern West Bank late Monday, hurling stones and setting cars and property ablaze, according to local Palestinian officials. The Red Crescent emergency service said 12 people were beaten and wounded.

Israeli forces, meanwhile, carried out a raid elsewhere in the West Bank that the military said was in response to the hurling of firebombs at Israeli vehicles. It said several suspects were detained for questioning, and a video circulating online appeared to show dozens being marched through the streets.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military launched another major operation, this time in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, where its forces have regularly clashed with Palestinian militants in recent years, even before Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered the war there.

At least nine Palestinians were killed on Tuesday, including a 16-year-old, and 40 were wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The military said its forces carried out airstrikes and dismantled roadside bombs and "hit" 10 militants - though it was not clear what that meant.

Palestinian residents have reported a major increase in Israeli checkpoints and delays across the territory.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz cast the Jenin operation as part of Israel's larger struggle against Iran and its militant allies across the region, saying "we will strike the octopus' arms until they snap."

The Palestinians view such operations and the expansion of settlements as ways of cementing Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering cities and towns.

Prominent human rights groups call it a form of apartheid since the over 500,000 Jewish settlers in the territory have all the rights conferred by Israeli citizenship. Israel rejects those allegations.

Netanyahu has been struggling to quell a rebellion by his ultranationalist coalition partners since agreeing to the ceasefire. The agreement requires Israeli forces to withdraw from most of Gaza and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners - including militants convicted of murder - in exchange for hostages abducted in the Oct. 7 attack.

One coalition partner, Itamar Ben-Gvir, resigned in protest the day the ceasefire went into effect. Another, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has threatened to bolt if Israel does not resume the war after the first phase of the ceasefire is slated to end in early March.

They want Israel to annex the West Bank and to rebuild settlements in Gaza while encouraging what they refer to as the voluntary migration of large numbers of Palestinians.

Netanyahu still has a parliamentary majority after Ben-Gvir's departure, but the loss of Smotrich - who is also the de facto governor of the West Bank - would severely weaken his coalition and likely lead to early elections.

That could spell the end of Netanyahu's nearly unbroken 16 years in power, leaving him even more exposed to longstanding corruption charges and an expected public inquiry into Israel's failure to prevent the Oct. 7 attack.

Trump's return to the White House offers Netanyahu a potential lifeline.

The newly sworn-in president, who lent unprecedented support to Israel during his previous term, has surrounded himself with aides who support Israeli settlement. Some support the settlers' claim to a biblical right to the West Bank because of the Jewish kingdoms that existed there in antiquity.

The international community overwhelmingly considers settlements illegal.

Among the flurry of executive orders Trump signed on his first day back in office was one rescinding the Biden administration's sanctions on settlers and Jewish extremists accused of violence against Palestinians.

The sanctions - which had little effect - were one of the few concrete steps the Biden administration took in opposition to the close US ally, even as it provided billions of dollars in military support for Israel's campaign in Gaza, among the deadliest and most destructive in decades.

Trump claimed credit for helping to get the Gaza ceasefire agreement across the finish line in the final days of the Biden presidency.

But this week, Trump said he was "not confident" it would hold and signaled he would give Israel a free hand in Gaza, saying: "It's not our war, it's their war."



Iran Loosens Import Restrictions on Foreign Cars, iPhones to Mask its Economic Woes

Visitors gather around a car on display at the 6th International Tehran Auto Show and related industries, just outside Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Visitors gather around a car on display at the 6th International Tehran Auto Show and related industries, just outside Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
TT

Iran Loosens Import Restrictions on Foreign Cars, iPhones to Mask its Economic Woes

Visitors gather around a car on display at the 6th International Tehran Auto Show and related industries, just outside Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Visitors gather around a car on display at the 6th International Tehran Auto Show and related industries, just outside Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

All architecture student Amirhossein Azizi wanted for his 19th birthday was the latest iPhone — and for Iran's cash-strapped theocracy, it was just the gift they needed as well.

Just buying a top-of-the-line iPhone 16 Pro Max in Iran's capital cost him on the day 1.6 billion rials ($1,880). An additional 450 million rials ($530) is required for import fees and registration on government-managed mobile phone networks.

“I’m very happy to own one of the most expensive phones in the country," Azizi said. His father, Mohammad, laughed nearby and added: “Maybe if they had to earn the money themselves, they wouldn’t be so quick to spend it.”

The purchase is only possible after Iran lifted import bans on expensive goods like foreign cars and new iPhones, yielding to public demand for the products while also trying to mask the dire straits of its economy, The AP reported.

While being described as a way to boost Iran's much-vaunted “resistance economy," the decisions trapped Iranians into buying more affordable locally produced vehicles long derided as “death wagons” and boosted the prices of aging, second-hand iPhones.

They also provide Iran with much-needed tax revenues as its government struggles under international sanctions over its nuclear program. Uncertainty over how US President Donald Trump will deal with Iran also has put pressure on its rial currency, which sits at record lows against the dollar.

Powerful forces within Iran long have been believed to be taking advantage of the sanctions, while those benefiting may just be among the country's most well-off citizens.

"It’s more about perception than reality,” Iranian economist Saeed Leilaz said.

‘Resistance’ economics at play Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, now 85, first proposed the idea nearly 15 years ago as Tehran faced its first round of intense sanctions over its nuclear program, which the West fears puts Iran at the precipice of obtaining an atomic bomb. Iran maintains its program is peaceful — even as it enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.

“Sanctions are not new for us," Khamenei said in a 2010 speech. "All achievements have been made and all the great movements of the people of Iran have been launched while we were under sanctions.”

In some ways, it's worked for Iran's ruling clerics since Trump unilaterally reimposed sanctions on Tehran after withdrawing America from the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran struck deals with China to continuing buying its crude oil, likely at a discount.

Those in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has grown into a major power center under Khamenei, handle the sales — both funding their operations against Israel during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and creating a new wealthy elite loyal to Khamenei.

But for the average person, there's clearly a before and an after for the life under the nuclear deal, which saw Iran agree to drastically limit its enrichment and overall stockpile of uranium.

At the time of the deal, the Iranian rial traded at 32,000 to $1. Now, a decade later, $1 was worth 885,000 rials on Tuesday.

The public's savings have evaporated, pushing average Iranians into holding onto gold, real estate and other tangible wealth. Others pursue cryptocurrencies or fall to get-rich schemes.

Iran lifts car and iPhone import restrictions, seeking cash Iran banned the import of foreign cars in 2017, while not allowing iPhones newer than the 13 to be registered on the country’s mobile phone networks. The phone decision set off a scramble for older iPhones, boosting their price, while used car prices for foreign models remain high as well.

In the last Persian year ending in March 2024, Iran imported $3.2 billion worth of mobile phones, customs data shows. The cut for high-end iPhones makes them a lucrative option to plug some of the gaping holes in Iran's government spending — though Iran's foreign currency reserves remain low due to sanctions.

“Lifting restrictions on a few platforms or allowing iPhone imports are the kinds of steps the government can take quickly and with minimal cost to create a sense of progress,” said Leilaz, the economist.

Such decisions also provide a quick win for Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian with Iran's elite — though it doesn't address any of the longer-term economic problems.

For cars, former President Hassan Rouhani banned imports of fully built foreign vehicles in 2018, after Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the nuclear deal. While in theory protecting Iranian foreign reserves, it also backed up local automobile manufacturers, whose products have long been criticized for not meeting international safety and quality standards — hence their “death wagon” monikers.

Experts believe if Iran's government allowed more lower-priced, higher-quality imports, the country's automobile manufacturers would lose their edge. Restrictions still limit the number of foreign cars that can come into the country and tariffs that Pezeshkian wants lowered may have been again placed at 100%.

“Since the number of newly imported cars is still limited, only a few people can afford them," said Saber, a car dealer in Tehran who spoke on condition only his first name be used to be able to discuss the issue frankly. "As a result, imported cars have skyrocketed in price on the open market.”

What Trump does carries serious consequences for Iran As Iran's economy worsens, its theocracy worries conditions could again push the public back onto the streets in nationwide protests. That's why officials up to Khamenei have backed the idea of talking again to the West.

While Trump has suggested he wants talks, he signed an executive order Feb. 4 calling for putting “Iran’s export of oil to zero,” including to China, which buys Tehran’s crude at a discount. It also seeks a “snapback” of United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. If implemented, they could decimate Iran at a time where its people are looking for any sign of optimism.

That includes a car show in Tehran in late January that featured foreign brands like Mazda, Nissan and Toyota, all sought after by Iranians. However, even with the change, Iran's economy still must exist in a world where the US dollar reigns supreme and its rial continues to fall.

“This biggest problem in this country is that everything depends on the dollar," said Saeed Maleki, standing among the vehicles at the show. "Today they tell you a car costs 3 billion rials. But after a week or a month will they still sell this for 3 billion? No! They will charge me with the new rates.”