Israel says battle against Iran-backed groups in West Bank can last another year

Israel's defense minister has announced that its war on Iran-backed groups in the occupied West Bank could go on as long as another year as Tehran refocuses its efforts in the wake of the Gaza war.

Speaking about the operation named 'Iron Wall, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday: "We will not return to the reality that existed in the past. We will continue to clear refugee camps and other terrorist hotbeds in order to dismantle the battalions and terrorist infrastructures of extremist Islam that were built, armed, financed and trained by the Iranian axis of evil."

In the latest update, he said the groups have been attempting to form what he called an eastern terror front against the settlements of the occupied West Bank, the border area and large population centers in Israel.

"We are at war with Islamic terrorism in Judea and Samaria - I have instructed the IDF to prepare for a prolonged stay in the camps that have been cleared for the coming year - and not to allow residents to return and terrorism to grow again," he said.

Since the operation began last month, 40,000 Palestinians have so far evacuated from the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur a-Shams refugee camps, all now empty of residents.

The UN said in a statement this month: "Armed Palestinians are also increasingly active in the northern West Bank, deploying improvised explosive devices inside refugee camps, including near UNRWA facilities and civilian infrastructure.

"The militants have engaged in violent clashes with both Israeli and Palestinian forces, UNRWA said. Furthermore, from December 2024 onwards, Palestinian forces operations further exacerbated displacement from Jenin camp."

UNRWA activities in the camps have also been suspended.

Last month, Khalil Shikaki, the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, told Iran International that Iran is taking advantage of the ruling Palestinian Authority's lack of political legitimacy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to arm militants.

“Iran exploits this vacuum left by the lack of legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and unpopularity of President Mahmoud Abbas to maintain and sustain this situation," he said.

Also last month, Katz said that in the wake of the weakening of Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and Iran’s largest military ally, Hezbollah in Lebanon, a new focus had been placed on Tehran's military allies in the West Bank, compounded by the fall of Iran's major ally, President Bashar Al Assad, in Syria.

"We are seeing increasing efforts to promote Palestinian terrorism in Israel through the smuggling of advanced weapons, funding and guidance both on the part of the Iranian axis and on the part of the radical Sunni Islamic axis that is strengthening its grip on the region after the events in Syria,” he said.

Groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade all operate in the area which has now become a war zone.