The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has condemned Israel’s decision to expand its large-scale military offensive against the northern West Bank, stating that this escalation exposes the occupation regime’s dangerous intentions to continue its genocidal war against the Palestinian people.

On Sunday, 23 February, the Israeli army deployed tanks in the northern West Bank for the first time since 2002, amid an intensifying military campaign in the occupied territory.

In a statement, Hamas denounced "the Zionist entity’s decision to escalate its aggression against the West Bank and its forced displacement campaigns, affecting more than 40,000 Palestinians in the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, Nour Shams, and Al-Far’a." The movement called on all sectors of Palestinian society and resistance factions to form a united front to confront such brutal crimes.

The Gaza-based resistance group also dismissed Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s remarks about maintaining occupation forces in the northern West Bank camps for a year and preventing residents from returning, calling them "delusional fantasies that will never materialise."

Hamas urged Palestinians in the West Bank to intensify their resistance and put an end to Israeli crimes.

According to an Israeli military statement, infantry forces from the Nahal Brigade and the Duvdevan commando unit launched incursions into several villages near Jenin. Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported that the deployment of tanks was part of "broader preparations for an expanded offensive in the northern West Bank."

Since January, the Israeli military has carried out relentless raids in the northern West Bank, killing at least 60 people and forcibly displacing thousands. This ongoing escalation has resulted in the killing of at least 923 Palestinians and the injury of nearly 7,000 others in attacks carried out by the Israeli army and illegal settlers since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza on 7 October 2023.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territories was illegal, ordering the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.