Thursday briefing: With a new wave of violence, the West Bank is on edge | Palestinian territories

Good morning.

A few days after a ceasefire brought at least temporary relief to Gaza, violence erupted in the occupied West Bank. On Tuesday, the Israeli military launched what was described as an extensive raid in the city of Jenin, a day after Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians, setting vehicles and property ablaze in a violent rampage. Two Israeli were arrested even though dozens of armed settlers were involved in the rioting. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, condemned the attacks, but it is evident that extremist settlers feel emboldened by government policies and ministers who back their agenda.

In Jenin, the military operation, codenamed “Iron Wall”, began with multiple airstrikes and the deployment of troops into the city and its refugee camp. Since the forces – supported by drones, helicopters and armoured bulldozers – entered the city, at least 10 people have been killed and dozens more injured, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

For today’s newsletter, I spoke with the Guardian’s senior international affairs correspondent, Emma Graham-Harrison, about the latest developments in the occupied West Bank. That follows the headlines.

Five big stories

1. Media | The Duke of Sussex has settled his high court legal action against the publisher of the Sun, News Group Newspapers. NGN offered “a full and unequivocal apology” to Prince Harry “for the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them” at the News of the World. It will also pay “substantial damages”.

2. US politics | Donald Trump has threatened Russia with taxes, tariffs and sanctions if a deal to end the war in Ukraine is not struck soon, as the new US president tries to increase pressure on Moscow to start negotiations with Kyiv.

3. Social media | TikTok’s power to deliver “exhilaration” and the UK’s relationship with China are shaping the UK government’s acceptance of the short video app despite “genuine concerns” about how the data of millions of Britons may be used, the technology secretary has said.

4. Politics | Campaigners will be blocked from “excessive” legal challenges to planning decisions for major infrastructure projects including airports, railways and nuclear power stations as part of the government’s drive for economic growth.

5. UK news | A former soldier has pleaded guilty to murdering three women with a crossbow at their home in Hertfordshire last year. Kyle Clifford admitted killing Carol Hunt and her daughters Hannah and Louise in Bushey on 9 July.

In depth: ‘Settlers are essentially policing themselves’

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has said that the military operation in Jenin marks a “shift” in security strategy and is aimed at “eliminating terrorists”. There has been a surge in support for Hamas in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war and other militant groups also operate there. However as Hamas rallies in Gaza on Sunday demonstrated, it is difficult to root out militant groups with military force alone, particularly when heavy offensives cause civilian casualties that serve as recruiting drives among the bereaved. “We saw in Afghanistan and in Iraq that killing civilians leads to recruitment to militant and terror groups,” Emma Graham-Harrison says.

In Jenin, movement is being further heavily restricted due to the military operation. The IDF has reportedly increased the number of military checkpoints and gates, that now number almost 900 across the West Bank. Israeli forces surrounded a Palestinian government hospital and a nearby refugee camp in the heart of Jenin, and the Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulances had been prevented from reaching many of the dead and wounded.

One way to understand both the escalating settler violence and the intensified Israeli military campaign in the occupied West Bank is to zoom out and consider the timing. Internationally, settlers feel empowered by the strong support for their mission from key officials in Trump’s administration. The Israeli military has stepped down its campaign in Gaza, and, after shattering Hezbollah in Lebanon, it can divert resources from the country’s north. Iran is seriously weakened by the failures of its proxy allies, most significantly the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. For Netanyahu, the campaign offers a way to placate hardliners who opposed the ceasefire deal, at a time when Israel has both military resources and political backing to step up their presence in the West Bank.

What is behind this latest wave of settler violence?

In November, Katz announced an end to administrative detention orders for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, meaning that the policy of holding suspects on security grounds without trial or charge would only be used against Palestinians. The rule was already used routinely and primarily against Palestinians – according to the Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem, by June 2024, the Israeli prison service was holding 3,340 Palestinians in administrative detention. Government security agency Shin Bet warned against the move because it would “result in an immediate, severe and serious harm to the security of the state”.

Last week, the five settlers who were in administrative detention for violent acts against Palestinians were released, in a move that Katz said was a direct response to the release of Palestinian prisoners under the ceasefire deal. He said it would “convey a clear message of strengthening and encouraging the settlement, which is at the forefront of the struggle against Palestinian terrorism and facing growing security challenges”. The Palestinian detainees that have been released are women and children.

This policy has emboldened and deepened a “climate of impunity” among settlers, Emma says. “One security official was quoted in Haaretz saying that rightist activists – I would say far-right – believe they can act freely and that no one will arrest them, and that is very much what seems to be happening”.

Settler violence has been on the rise for the last 15 months. Between 7 October 2023 and 31 December 2024, at least 1,860 such incidents in the occupied West Bank were recorded, according to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Impact on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank

Since the 7 October attack, daily life has become more dangerous and more difficult for Palestinians in the West Bank. Armed settlers have assaulted Palestinian farmers, cut down trees and set fire to olive groves. Some are driven off their land and forcibly displaced by extremists, with the implicit approval of authorities. Roads are blocked so Palestinians are forced to take long detours, or closed entirely by checkpoints. Some have been blocked from reaching agricultural and grazing land.

“There’s a sense of constant threat and risk,” Emma says. “One child who was killed, whose family we spoke to, was 12. He was just coming back from playing football at his local pitch when there was an Israeli military raid in his neighbourhood and was shot down in the street – there is footage. Another was 14. There’s no footage of the moment he was killed, but he was playing with friend in an olive grove when he was shot. If you think about what that does as a parent, to have this constant sense of fear for your children.” This Guardian report has more details on the huge rise of Palestinian children being killed in the West Bank.

Exacerbating this routine violence is a dire economic situation. For the last 15 months, Israel has suspended entry for about 140,000 Palestinian workers from the occupied West Bank, causing unemployment and poverty to soar. “The situation has become more difficult in every way: both on a sort of mundane, daily basis, and at a much bigger, existential level,” Emma says.

The shifting US position

Under Biden, there was a sense in Washington that violence in the occupied West Bank by settlers had become so extreme and potentially destabilising that it had become a security threat to the region. So despite the president’s staunch support for Israel generally, the administration imposed sanctions on several leading settlers and settler organisations associated with violence. They were the same sanctions used against bitter geopolitical enemies like Iran, North Korea and Russia, or on serious criminals. “It was a pretty strong signal and, though it hadn’t hit any organisations big enough to have real financial impacts on the wider settlement project, it sent a very clear message about what the Biden administration thought about violence,” Emma says.

With Donald Trump in the White House, the US position on settlements in the West Bank has changed dramatically. During a senate confirmation hearing, the president’s nominee for US ambassador to the UN, Elise Stefanik, supported the idea that Israel has biblical rights to the entire occupied West Bank. Trump’s picks have form here – in 2017, Mike Huckabee, then Trump’s pick for US ambassador to Israel, said that “there is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria.” In 2008, Huckabee said: “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”

“Huckabee’s not just negating the right of Palestinians to have a state – he has previously negated the existence of Palestinians as a people,” Emma says. “So there is a very clear message from the new administration that they have no interest in restraining the settler project – in fact they strongly ideologically back it.”

The settlers, the military and the state

The scale and intensity of the horror and tragedy in Gaza has limited the focus on “the very disturbing violent political project that’s going on in the occupied West Bank, which has been turbocharged by the war”, Emma says, and which in the long-term has the capacity to be as destructive to the prospect of lasting peace for the region and nationhood for Palestinians.

There is now little obstacle to the settler project. Key officials in the new US and powerful factions in the Israeli government are ideologically committed to the expanding Israeli control in the occupied West Bank or even full annexation and in the West Bank itself. “Security forces seem unable or unwilling to control” settler violence, Emma says. “When the military were called up to fight in Gaza, IDF ranks in the West Bank were often filled by reservists from local settlements, meaning in many areas of the West Bank settler communities are essentially policing themselves”.

“That combination is very disturbing in fuelling impunity among settlers who are seeking to use violence to expand their control and diminish Palestinian presence and control in the West Bank.”

What else we’ve been reading

• Prince Harry scored a significant legal victory over the Murdoch-owned News Group yesterday, but, writes Jane Martinson in her analysis, “in this tale of celebrity, scandal and corruption there has been no obvious winner.” Charlie Lindlar, acting deputy editor, newsletters

• If you’ve not already signed up for The Long Wave – what are you waiting for?! Meanwhile, catch up with Nesrine Malik this week as she discusses community-based grassroots politics and trust in politics. Nimo

• This week’s A moment that changed me is truly fascinating – author Jane Yang writes about finding a picture of her grandmother with “a mysterious woman”, and how the discovery would forever transform her relationship with her mother. Charlie

• Maanvi Singh spoke with academic Austin Kocher about the flurry of immigration orders issued by Donald Trump and why uncertainty is part of the policy: he “wants people to feel so afraid and so confused and enraptured in the chaos that we’re not able to live our lives in community”. Nimo

• The trailblazing feminist journalist and regular Guardian contributor Charlotte Raven has died aged 55. Raven had Huntington’s disease, and had previously written movingly on both her diagnosis and life with the condition, and how her experience of palliative care changed her mind on assisted dying. Charlie

Sport

Champions League | Declan Rice scored after 72 seconds but Arsenal had to work hard before winning 3-0 against Dinamo Zagreb to leave them close to an automatic place in the last 16. Celtic reached the knockout stage finishing 1-0 against Young Boys after Loris Benito’s own goal made up for a missed penalty and a hat-trick of offside goals. Manchester City lost 4-2 at Paris Saint-Germain having led 2-0 to leave their Champions League hopes in the balance.

Tennis | Jannik Sinner dismissed Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 to reach the Australian Open semi-finals and extend the country’s decades-long wait for another homegrown singles winner.

T20 cricket | Brendon McCullum’s first game in charge of the England white-ball side ended in defeat as Abhishek Sharma’s 79 from 34 balls helped India to a handsome win. England 132; India 133-3; India win by seven wickets

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