Ronen Bar said Israel was in the midst of a multi-front campaign, but that “right now, it’s Samaria’s [northern West Bank] time”.

Israeli forces have been carrying out a major military operation in and around the West Bank city of Jenin since Tuesday.

The Israeli army’s chief, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, has talked of bringing Jenin to “a different place” through continued military pressure there.

Army vehicles are currently controlling the entrance to Jenin’s main hospital, and have blocked access to Jenin refugee camp – home to both civilians and armed Palestinian groups.

The roads into the camp – some of them torn up by military bulldozers – are guarded by small groups of soldiers, who raised their weapons when we approached.

On Thursday, a stream of men, women and children left the camp, picking their way past the military vehicles and over the rubble of the road, to the sound of explosions and gunfire behind them.

“The situation is horrible,” said Adel, a taxi driver. “I live on al-Awda Street, and I’m the last one to leave. There’s no one there.”

Adel said the army had dropped leaflets in the camp, telling people to leave their homes.

“Everyone has to leave before 17:00,” he told me. “God knows what they’re going to do.”

Many of those leaving the camp on Thursday, clutching children, pets and plastic bags full of clothes, told us they had received instructions from the army to leave – either by announcements from drones or trucks, or through the leaflets.

The BBC has seen photos of leaflets said to have been dropped inside the camp, and heard recordings believed to be of the Israeli announcements, which appear to corroborate what the residents said.

But Israel’s government spokesman, David Mencer, told journalists in a briefing that there had been “no evacuation orders whatsoever” for the people of Jenin.

“People in Jenin not connected with terrorism are free to leave, to get away from our action,” he said. But he described reports of evacuation orders as “fake news, probably spread by supporters of Hamas”.

Israel says it aims to destroy the armed groups here – backed by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – and stop them carrying out attacks against Israeli targets.

It is worried about the West Bank becoming the next focus for Iranian influence and arms.

But a show of force here after the ceasefire in Gaza also plays well with those in Israel who not only want to continue the war there, but want to annex the West Bank as well.

Twelve Palestinians are reported to have been killed in the operation and dozens injured, including two men suspected of murdering three Israelis in a shooting attack earlier this month.

Qutaiba Shalabi and Mohammed Nazzal were killed after a fierce gun battle with Israeli forces on Wednesday night in Burqin, just west of Jenin.

Hamas put out a statement claiming them as its fighters.

But civilians have also been killed during the operation.

Ahmed al-Shayeb owned a mobile phone shop in Jenin – a well-known businessman, not a fighter, locals said.

He was shot dead by Israeli forces, as he drove down a road near Jenin’s refugee camp, with his 10-year-old son Taym in the car.

“They started shooting, and a bullet hit him,” Taym told reporters at his father’s funeral on Wednesday.

“He said, ‘God, God,’ then the car hit the pavement. I saw two army vehicles coming toward us. They started to shoot towards the car, but I jumped out and ran away.”

Israel’s army says the incident is under review.

Many people here told us this raid felt different to the many others Israel has carried out since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.

“It’s different this time – they’re striking everywhere. It’s like Gaza,” one man told me, as he left the camp on Wednesday.

Next to him, 52-year-old Kefah Sehwal said she had lost 15 members of her family in the past 15 months.

“After what happened to [Israeli forces] in Gaza, the reaction is here,” she told me. “They’re taking it out on us.”

Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, has talked about a “shift in strategy” for this operation, saying the lesson from Gaza is not just to “eliminate terrorists”, as he put it, but to stop them coming back.

That plan didn’t work in Gaza. It’s not clear it’ll work in Jenin.

Palestinian media reported that on Tuesday there were several air strikes as a large number of troops entered the city and its refugee camp, backed by drones, helicopters and armoured bulldozers.

Israel’s prime minister said it launched an “extensive and significant” operation to “defeat terrorism” in Jenin, long seen as a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups.

It comes three days after the start of a ceasefire in Gaza and highlights the threat of more violence in the West Bank, where suspected Israeli settlers also went on the rampage on Monday night.

Jenin’s governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP news agency on Tuesday morning that “what is happening is an invasion of the camp”, adding: “It came quickly, Apache [helicopters] in the sky and Israeli military vehicles everywhere.”

Palestinian security personnel reportedly withdrew from some of their positions around Jenin refugee camp before the Israeli forces moved in.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, later cited local sources as saying that Israeli forces were “completely besieging” Jenin camp, and that armoured bulldozers had dug up several streets.

The director of Jenin’s Government hospital, Dr Wissam Bakr, also told the agency that three doctors and two nurses were among those wounded by Israeli gunfire.

A medical worker at another hospital, al-Amal, told the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians: “I was called in [on Tuesday] due to the surge of injuries, and the moment I stepped out of the car making my way to the emergency entrance a sniper shot me below the knee.”

“Another doctor was shot in the same spot,” they added. “The Israeli army is shooting non-stop.”

On Wednesday, Jenin’s governor said Israeli forces had “bulldozed all the roads leading to Jenin camp, and leading to Jenin Government hospital”.

Dr Bakr said earth mounds were blocking the entrances to the hospital, making it difficult to enter and leave, and preventing ambulance crews from reaching it.

The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

The Palestinian health ministry reported on Tuesday evening that nine men and a 16-year-old boy, whom it named as Mutaz Abu Tbeikh, had been killed by Israeli forces in Jenin.

Another man was shot and killed by Israeli troops in the village of Tianik, about 8km (5 miles) to the north-west, it added.

Sources told the BBC that most of those killed were civilians.

However, the Israeli military and Shin Bet security service said on Wednesday that they had “hit over 10 terrorists” during the operation.

“Additionally, aerial strikes on terror infrastructure sites were conducted and numerous explosives planted on the routes by the terrorists were dismantled,” they added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the Jenin operation – dubbed “Iron Wall” – was an “additional step in achieving the objective we have set: bolstering security” in the West Bank.

“We are acting methodically and with determination against the Iranian axis wherever it reaches: in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and [the West Bank] – and we are still active.”

Israel accuses Iran of smuggling weapons and funds to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other armed groups in the West Bank to foment unrest.

The prime minister of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Mustafa, condemned the raid, saying it was the latest in a series of “aggressive Israeli measures” against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to Wafa.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad both called on Palestinians in the West Bank to escalate attacks against Israeli forces in response to the Jenin operation.

There have been a number of previous Israeli military operations in Jenin.

And recently, the PA’s security forces carried out a controversial, weeks-long operation against armed groups there, including Hamas and PIJ, trying to reassert their control.

There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed as Israeli forces have intensified their raids, saying they are trying to stem deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Israel.

In another development in the West Bank on Monday night, dozens of masked Israeli extremists attacked Palestinians in two villages east of Qalqilya, Jinsafut and al-Funduq, setting fire to Palestinian homes and cars and smashing property.

At least 21 Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Two Israelis were also shot, apparently when an Israeli police officer opened fire while responding to the violence.

“If you were there last night, you would not hear anything more than screaming of women and children,” said Mohammed, whose family home in al-Funduq was metres away from a garden centre that was torched.

“In the end, we have don’t have anything to protect ourselves. But they have everything to attack us.”

The Israeli military said it was investigating the incidents, during which it said Israeli civilians “instigated riots, set property on fire, and caused damage”. It also said they hurled stones and attacked Israeli security forces.

It happened just as new US President Donald Trump announced he was lifting sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of carrying out attacks in the West Bank.

The reversal of the Biden administration’s sanctions targeting radical Israelis, could indicate the direction for the new White House that is expected to be more tolerant of Jewish settlement expansion.

The far-right, pro-settler Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, welcomed the US move. In a post on X, he praised Trump’s “unwavering and uncompromising support for the state of Israel”.

Meanwhile, Palestinian officials condemned the change in policy. “Lifting sanctions on extremist settlers encourages them to commit more crimes against our people”, the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The mayor of al-Funduq, Luay Tayyam, told the BBC: “It is like a green light for the settlers, saying: ‘Just go ahead, do whatever you want. You will not be persecuted.'”

“So they are happy with this news. And I think this was a big push for them last night. They feel encouraged by it.”

There are also rising tensions over the large-scale release of Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank this week, as part of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

The attack in al-Funduq was in an area where three Israelis were killed in a shooting earlier this month. It was the latest in a long series of settler attacks that have accelerated markedly since the start of the Gaza war.

According to the Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, in 2024 settlers also established 59 new outposts, without authorisation from the Israeli government. That was more than double the number from the previous year – which was also a record year for settlement outpost establishment.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this – as did the previous Trump administration.

Palestinian media reported that there were a series of air strikes as a large number of troops moved in to the city and its refugee camp, backed by drones, helicopters and armoured bulldozers.

Israel’s prime minister said it launched an “extensive and significant” operation to “defeat terrorism” in Jenin, long seen as a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups.

It comes three days after the start of a ceasefire in Gaza and highlights the threat of more violence in the West Bank, where suspected Israeli settlers also went on the rampage overnight.

Jenin’s governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP news agency that “what is happening is an invasion of the camp”, adding: “It came quickly, Apache [helicopters] in the sky and Israeli military vehicles everywhere.”

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, cited local sources as saying that Israeli forces were “completely besieging” Jenin camp, and that armoured bulldozers had dug up several streets.

It also cited the director of Jenin’s Government hospital, Wissam Bakr, as saying that three doctors and two nurses were among those wounded by Israeli gunfire.

Palestinian security personnel reportedly withdrew from some of their positions around Jenin refugee camp before the Israeli forces moved in on Tuesday morning.

Brig-Gen Anwar Rajab, a spokesman of the Palestinian security forces, told AFP that Israeli forces had “opened fire on civilians and security forces”, resulting in a number of injuries.

On Tuesday evening, the Palestinian health ministry reported that eight men and a 16-year-old boy, whom it named as Mutaz Abu Tbeikh, had been killed by Israeli forces in Jenin.

Another man was shot and killed by Israeli troops in the village of Tianik, about 8km (5 miles) to the north-west, it added.

A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Jenin operation – dubbed “Iron Wall” – was an “additional step in achieving the objective we have set: bolstering security” in the West Bank.

“We are acting methodically and with determination against the Iranian axis wherever it reaches: in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and [the West Bank] – and we are still active.”

Israel accuses Iran of smuggling weapons and funds to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other armed groups in the West Bank to foment unrest.

Israeli media cited a military source as saying that the goals of the operation were to preserve its “freedom of action” in the West Bank, dismantle armed groups’ infrastructure, and eliminate imminent threats. The source also said the operation would continue for “as long as necessary”.

The prime minister of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Mustafa, condemned the raid, saying it was the latest in a series of “aggressive Israeli measures” against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to Wafa.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad both called on Palestinians in the West Bank to escalate attacks against Israel in response to the Jenin operation.

There have been a number of previous Israeli military operations Jenin.

And recently, the PA’s security forces carried out a controversial, weeks-long operation against armed groups there, including Hamas and PIJ, trying to reassert their control.

There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed as Israeli forces have intensified their raids, saying they are trying to stem deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Israel.

In another development in the West Bank overnight, dozens of masked Israeli extremists attacked Palestinians in two villages east of Qalqilya, Jinsafut and al-Funduq, setting fire to Palestinian homes and cars and smashing property.

At least 21 Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Two Israelis were also shot, apparently when an Israeli police officer opened fire while responding to the violence.

“If you were there last night, you would not hear anything more than screaming of women and children,” said Mohammed, whose family home in al-Funduq was metres away from a garden centre that was torched.

“In the end, we have don’t have anything to protect ourselves. But they have everything to attack us.”

The Israeli military said it was investigating the incidents, during which it said Israeli civilians “instigated riots, set property on fire, and caused damage”. It also said they hurled rocks and attacked Israeli security forces.

It happened just as new US President Donald Trump announced he was lifting sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of carrying out attacks in the West Bank.

The reversal of the Biden administration’s sanctions targeting radical Israelis, could indicate the direction for the new White House that is expected to be more tolerant of Jewish settlement expansion.

The far-right, pro-settler Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, welcomed the US move. In a post on X, he praised Trump’s “unwavering and uncompromising support for the state of Israel”.

Meanwhile, Palestinian officials condemned the change in policy. “Lifting sanctions on extremist settlers encourages them to commit more crimes against our people”, the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The mayor of al-Funduq, Luay Tayyam, told the BBC: “It is like a green light for the settlers, saying: ‘Just go ahead, do whatever you want. You will not be persecuted.'”

“So they are happy with this news. And I think this was a big push for them last night. They feel encouraged by it.”

There are also rising tensions over the large-scale release of Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank this week, as part of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

The attack in al-Funduq was in an area where three Israelis were killed in a shooting earlier this month. It was the latest in a long series of settler attacks that have accelerated markedly since the start of the Gaza war.

According to the Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, in 2024 settlers also established 59 new outposts, without authorisation from the Israeli government. That was more than double the number from the previous year – which was also a record year for settlement outpost establishment.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this – as did the previous Trump administration.

But it is the identity of the security forces clashing with those fighters that is most shocking to Nahida. They’re not Israeli. In fact, they’re Palestinian, and represent the Palestinian Authority (PA).

“We never imagined that the security forces would treat the camp like this,” the 52-year-old Palestinian woman said.

The clashes around the al-Sabbagh family’s home in the camp’s al-Mahyoub neighbourhood are the result of an ongoing campaign launched by the PA’s security apparatus under the name “Protecting the Homeland”.

The campaign has been justified as an effort to “pursue criminals” and lawbreakers and prevent the camp from becoming a battleground like Gaza, according to Anwar Rajab, the spokesperson for the PA security forces.

Rajab has also characterised the fighters in Jenin as pro-Iranian and “mercenaries”, and aiding the Israeli far-right’s attempts to weaken the PA.

The Jenin Brigades, the main target of the PA, has ties to the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but also has members affiliated with other Palestinian groups.

What are they are doing is creating areas outside the control and sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority,” Rajab told Al Jazeera, referring to the Palestinian fighters being targeted in the PA’s operation. “This is evident in their rejection of any presence of the PA and its apparatus inside the camp, [thus] serving the agendas of external forces that were responsible for the destruction of Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria.”

The PA raid on the camp, which began on December 14, followed a 10-day siege. During that period, security forces killed an unarmed 19-year-old civilian, Rabhi al-Shalabi, in the camp as he rode a motorcycle, a scene captured on camera that led to widespread outrage. Then, on the day the raid began on Saturday, a 13-year-old child, as well as a commander in the Jenin Brigades who was wanted by Israel, were also killed.

The PA took “full responsibility” for the killing of al-Shalabi, but no immediate action was announced to arrest the officers involved or refer them to the public prosecutor for investigation, further raising the anger on the streets.

The justifications for the operation have failed to convince the 24,000 Palestinian refugees living within the half a square kilometre (0.19sq miles) that makes up the densely populated camp. These residents have endured more than a year of Israeli incursions and raids, and many see the campaign as an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian resistance, in line with the PA’s security coordination with Israel.

Although this is not the first such PA campaign against Jenin camp, it is the first during Israel’s war on Gaza and amid ongoing Israeli attacks on the camp, which has been raided more than 80 times over the past year, resulting in more than 220 deaths and thousands of injuries, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Fadi expressed his outrage to Al Jazeera at what he described had happened to him. The 42-year-old said the security forces stormed his building and forced nearby residents to leave their homes, detaining them in his apartment.

“They fired at me, terrifying my children, just because I was on the balcony. And they didn’t stop there – they forcibly entered my home,” Fadi said, recounting how his children and his neighbours’ children were terrified, and how he is wanted by the PA security forces after appearing in a video on social media speaking about his ordeal.

Fadi is adamant that despite the PA’s claims, the camp is fully supportive of the Jenin Brigades.

“Anyone who doubts the popular support for resistance in the camp should visit now and see the public rallying around it,” Fadi said. “No one here will give up the resistance.”

The PA has partial administrative control over the occupied West Bank – which Jenin sits in the northern part of. However, Israel has had full military control over the Palestinian territory since 1967.

Over the past few days, the Jenin camp has been under PA siege, with no movement in or out, along with electricity and water cuts. The medical situation is dire, with ambulances unable to enter or exit, despite the large number of injuries from ongoing clashes between the two sides.

Despite the difficult situation inside the camp and the intense fighting, security officials remain committed to continuing the operation.

PA Interior Minister Ziad Hab al-Reeh reiterated during a meeting at the Jenin governorate’s headquarters on Wednesday that the operation would continue until its objectives were achieved.

“We will pursue anyone who tries to tamper with our people’s resources and sabotage the Palestinian national project,” Hab al-Reeh said.

Some camp residents agree with the objectives of the campaign but reject the methods used by the security forces.

Hani Hijazi, 54, who lives on al-Sikka Street in the western part of the camp, said he understands the need for the security forces to operate within the camp and address issues that have arisen, but not through the methods that have led to the deaths of innocent civilians.

Hijazi, like many others in the camp, fears that this could escalate into a larger confrontation between the two sides, potentially leading to a “civil war”.

“Both sides are responsible; fighting is not the solution. Reconciliation is,” Hijazi said.

Amid the rapidly escalating events in the camp, residents have questioned the timing of the PA’s operation.

The Jenin Brigades was formed in 2021, and although the Islamic Jihad movement comprises the largest portion of it, all Palestinian factions are represented in its military wings, including the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah – the Palestinian faction that dominates the PA.

Moreover, Israel has repeatedly raided the camp, and the pursuit of armed fighters has not ceased.

Kifah al-Omari, 51, a resident of Bab al-Saha in the centre of the camp, wondered to Al Jazeera why the PA would intervene.

Al-Omari sat outside her home with her family as she spoke, warming herself by a wood-burning stove due to the electricity blackout in the camp and the lack of heating in its homes.

“We, the ones living in the heart of this event, know very well that all the justifications provided by the PA are untrue,” al-Omari said. “This leaves us to speculate about the real reason for this campaign and its timing.”

Like many other Palestinians, al-Omari did not rule out that the cause might be linked to major political arrangements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, preparing the PA to extend its control over Gaza in the event of any agreement to end the war on the enclave.

The Israeli government has repeatedly stressed that it does not trust the PA to effectively fight Palestinian resistance fighters, and so many Palestinians believe that operations such as the one in Jenin are an effort to prove that the PA can in fact root the fighters out.

Rajab, the security forces’ spokesperson, rejected accusations that the PA is working with Israel against resistance fighters, saying the PA had “provided protection for 200 Palestinians who were targeted for liquidation and immediate assassination by Israel”.

It is a sovereign decision from the highest level within the PA to work with all our efforts, means, and methods to prevent another catastrophe and disaster in the West Bank, as happened in the Gaza Strip,” he added, in a further attempt to justify the raid.

Yet al-Omari claimed that offers from locals in the camp have been made to the PA to resolve the situation without bloodshed, but that these had been refused.

Instead, al-Omari said, the PA had demanded that “wanted individuals surrender themselves and their weapons”.

“This demand was not accompanied by any guarantees or offers to protect them or the camp from Israeli occupation forces, which is why the fighters and camp residents rejected it,” al-Omari added.