When a ceasefire began in Gaza last month, Palestinian activist Ahmad Kilani hoped the pause in fighting would also bring a return to peace in his hometown of Yabad in the occupied West Bank.
But his joy turned to fear when, just two days later on Jan. 21, large columns of Israeli army vehicles backed by helicopters and drones stormed the nearby Jenin refugee camp at the start of a major crackdown in the West Bank.
Israel has since blown up some 20 buildings in the camp, sending plumes of heavy smoke over the densely populated area, and carried out air strikes.
It says it is targeting armed groups that receive support from Iran, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The United Nations' Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA) has said that almost all of Jenin camp's 20,000 residents have been displaced over the past two months.
UNRWA said the area "has been rendered a ghost town" in a statement carried by Reuters.
The Israeli military set up roadblocks and checkpoints across the kidney-shaped stretch of land about 100 km (62 miles) long, and dozens of people were killed or injured in fighting.
"After the ceasefire in Gaza, the war here expanded," Kilani, a member of the Committee for Humanitarian Work in Palestine, an aid group active in the West Bank and Gaza, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"We saw destruction that we did not anticipate seeing. Even though we heard about it, we did not expect it to happen so quickly and in this way."
Since that incursion, hundreds of Israeli troops backed by helicopters, drones and armored vehicles have been waging sporadic gun battles with Palestinian fighters while carrying out searches in streets and alleyways for weapons and equipment.
At least 25 Palestinians have been killed, including nine members of armed groups, a 73-year-old man and a 2-year-old girl, according to Palestinian officials. The Israeli military says it has killed at least 35 gunmen and detained more than 100 wanted people.
Israeli roadblocks have made travelling even short distances between towns and villages into an hours-long trial for Palestinians.
"Nothing can describe the situation we are living in, and every day is worse than the day before. If we discuss something now, it would be worse in a couple of hours," Kilani said.
Relatively well-off friends who once raced to dish out alms and aid are now themselves on the lookout for charity, he said. People have locked themselves indoors to avoid the incessant security operations and Israeli checkpoints, he added.
"Sometimes I scream at myself - what are we headed towards?"
ECONOMIC FREE FALL
The war in Gaza - where more than 47,000 people have been killed and almost the entire population of 2.3 million displaced in a landscape reduced to rubble by Israeli air strikes - was already taking a heavy toll on the occupied West Bank's economy.
The conflict started on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza. Many of the dead were gunmen, but young people throwing stones and civilians were also killed, and thousands have been arrested.
Palestinian attacks in the West Bank and Israel have also killed dozens of Israelis. On Tuesday, two Israeli soldiers were killed and eight wounded when a gunman opened fire on troops in the area, setting off a gunfight in which the shooter was killed by Israeli soldiers, the Israeli military said.
Economic activity in the occupied West Bank fell by 23% in first half of 2024, the World Bank said in a report in December.
Unemployment stands at about 35% as Palestinian laborers have been banned from travelling to work in Israel since October 2023.
Before then, about 177,000 Palestinians worked in Israel. By the second quarter of 2024, the number had dropped to 27,000, the World Bank said.
Many of the Palestinians employed by the Israeli economy work in settlements in the West Bank, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
"The conflict's impact has now exceeded all previous economic crises in the Palestinian territories over the past two decades," the World Bank report noted.
Economic contraction in the occupied West Bank is estimated to have more than doubled the short-term poverty rate from 12% in 2023 to 28% by mid-2024, the ILO said last year.
In August, Israeli banks began refusing shekel cash transfers from Palestinian banks in the West Bank, a move that Palestinian officials said could soon prevent Palestinians from accessing vital goods and services.
Olive oil bandits have also appeared as desperate people steal olives from groves with the intent of pressing them into oil and selling them on the black market, Kilani said.
"This wasn't something that existed before," he said.
He described a society coming apart at the seams.
"It is not that one school is closed; it is that schools have been closed for a year; health (clinics) are closed, and people cannot get their medicine," Kilani said.
"Companies are closing, banks are closing, and people cannot get to their lands to plant them."
NO WORK
Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state, since the 1967 Middle East war.
It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and Biblical ties to the land.
The United Nations Human Rights office says the new Israeli military operation in the West Bank could endanger the Gaza ceasefire and has called for an immediate end to the violence and a halt on expanding settlements.
As economic prospects disappear, residents like Robeen Idris are becoming increasingly desperate.
The 45-year-old lives in Hebron in the southern West Bank with his wife, seven children and parents. His mother has cancer, and his dad wears a pacemaker.
"There is no work because the roads are closed, and the situation is difficult," he said. "I cannot spend money to buy them food, water, and medicine."
Idris has been unemployed since August 2023. Before then, he worked in sanitation in Israeli hotels. Now those jobs are out of reach, and he has developed diabetes, which he blames on stress.
Economic conditions are forcing business and factory owners to cut their workforce, often replacing laborers like himself with their own family members, he added.
"There is no need for them to employ strangers," he said.
