How Tubas became a strategic West Bank battleground for Israel

Israeli military forces re-entered Tubas governorate in the northern occupied West Bank on Monday, less than 24 hours after concluding a four-day operation that left widespread destruction across the area.

The renewed incursion, which included airborne troop deployments by helicopter near Tubas city and the town of Aqaba, signals what Palestinian analysts describe as a deliberate strategy to entrench military control and dismantle any prospect of Palestinian statehood.

Local sources reported that Israeli forces raided several homes in Tubas and Aqaba, searching the premises and converting some into military outposts. Shops were also raided, with owners forced to close. 

Kamel Bani Odeh, director of the Tubas Prisoners’ Club, told The New Arab that 18 residents were detained, seven of whom have since been released. Israeli patrols continue to operate in the neighbourhoods, with infantry units deployed in parts of the towns.

The operation is part of an intensified military campaign across the West Bank that began in August 2024, displacing more than 40,000 Palestinians from refugee camps in the north, according to Human Rights Watch.

The rights organisation has accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity through forced displacement, charges that Israeli officials have not addressed.

Political analyst Sari Arabi told TNA that Tubas represents “a vital component” of Israel's expanded military operations, which have concentrated on the camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams. 

"This security mobilisation began before 7 October," Arabi noted. "The West Bank had already become a primary theatre for incursions, arrests, and assassinations. The northern West Bank has been central to this pattern since 2021."

A campaign beyond security

The scale of force deployed in Tubas has raised questions about the stated objectives. Governor Ahmed al-Asaad described the latest operation as political rather than military, aimed at "activating the annexation law in the West Bank".

He reported approximately 200 arrests and 200 injuries, with 80 cases requiring hospital treatment. Damage to infrastructure has been estimated at nine to ten million shekels ($2.76 to $3 million).

Arabi identified three interlocking objectives behind the operations: security, political, and strategic. The security dimension, he explained, aims to dismantle armed resistance before it can develop.

"The Israeli security and military establishment are rushing to break up any armed formations before they expand," he said.

The political objective extends further. Israeli forces seek to impose a permanent military presence that crushes any inclination toward resistance among Palestinians.

"These policies target Palestinian life economically and in terms of movement," Arabi told TNA, "making the army's presence and the violence more severe."

Political analyst Nihad Abu Ghosh characterised the Tubas operation as emblematic of a systematic policy to subjugate Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank. The campaign, he argued, began when the far-right government took power, and then accelerated alongside the war in Gaza.

The operation encompassed the entire governorate – the city, villages, and camps – and came one day after the military announced it had eliminated all wanted armed individuals in the area. 

Abu Ghosh described the deployment of an entire division comprising three brigades, police units, and Shin Bet personnel, supported by helicopter gunships, against unarmed civilians as revealing the true nature of the campaign.

"This fits within the occupation's plan to impose an end to the conflict with Palestinians and create a new reality that strengthens its position, by encircling any manifestation of resistance," Abu Ghosh said.

Refugee camps in the crosshairs

The targeting of refugee camps has emerged as a defining feature of Israeli military operations in the West Bank. Political analyst Murad Harfoush said the camps have become the eye of the storm. 

"What has happened in the camps – whether total destruction as in Gaza's refugee camps or partial destruction in the West Bank – is clear evidence of the systematic policy the occupation follows to change the geographic and demographic character of these camps," he said.

Abu Ghosh argued that operations against camps serve a broader purpose and that is “the utter liquidation of the refugee question itself”. 

The refugee issue, he explained, rests on three pillars: the refugees themselves, the camps as way stations for return, and UNRWA as the international institution guaranteeing their rights.

"Israel is currently seeking to undermine two of these pillars by criminalising UNRWA and classifying it as a terrorist entity, in addition to destroying the camps and transforming them into residential neighbourhoods," Abu Ghosh said.

The camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams depend heavily on UNRWA services, yet the agency faces a severe financial crisis while the Israeli Knesset has moved to designate it as an illegal organisation. Harfoush noted that many displaced families have been forced into schools converted to shelters after their homes were demolished.

Schools across the Tubas governorate have suspended in-person learning for a second consecutive day, while government and civil institutions remain closed.

Settler violence and land seizures

The military operations have coincided with an unprecedented surge in settler attacks. The Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission documented 766 settler assaults against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank during October alone.

Settler violence, Abu Ghosh observed, integrates with occupation policies and often displays a savage face. Armed groups have been formed to attack Palestinians and their property, burn homes, uproot trees, and intensify assaults on the Palestinian countryside.

Groups such as "Hilltop Youth" and "Beasts of the Hills" are linked ideologically to religious Zionist ideology and right-wing parties supporting settlement and displacement.

Harfoush pointed to the systematic seizure of agricultural land, with bulldozers destroying crops and orchards. During the recent olive harvest, settlers burned agricultural produce and uprooted trees, while land was confiscated under security pretexts.

Land seizure has reached unprecedented levels, particularly in Area C, where dozens of settlement outposts have been legalised and thousands of housing units approved under the current government. Arabi said these policies aim to eliminate any possibility of a future Palestinian state through creeping annexation, severing Palestinian villages, and restricting available space.

Despite repeated international condemnation, no country has imposed sanctions on settler militias or their supporters within Israeli security agencies. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson, Jeremy Laurence, recently highlighted what he termed extrajudicial killings by Israeli police of two Palestinian men in Jenin.

Abu Ghosh acknowledged that the Palestinian political system is unable to confront these challenges, owing to internal division and stagnation within the national movement.

Palestinian factions, he said, have failed to organise solidarity activities with Gaza or assist villages targeted by settlers, with responses limited to ineffective statements of condemnation.

 

 

 

 

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"Betting on international interventions, especially from the United States, has proven futile," Abu Ghosh said. "The American position remains dismissive of Palestinian rights and does not mention the right to self-determination on the international stage."

He adds that under the current government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, prospects for a political settlement appear to have vanished.

The government is moving toward resolving the conflict at the expense of Palestinian rights through continued settlement, displacement, and land confiscation, alongside weakening the Palestinian Authority through financial siege, all amid unconditional American support for Israel.

This article is published in collaboration with Egab