In the early hours of Monday, 56-year-old Ahmed al-Amouri watched wryly as three Israeli tanks rolled into his hometown, Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
The last time he had seen tanks there was more than two decades ago when Israel sought to crush the second Intifada in 2002.
This time, the scene seemed to provoke more humour than alarm.
He joined bystanders who took selfies in front of the armoured vehicles or pelted them with rocks as they entered Jenin.
“There’s no point bringing those tanks all the way here. The city’s empty!” the father of five said.
“I and thousands of others have already been driven out, and unless they’re fighting their own demons, they won’t find anyone in the camp to battle with,” he said.
He had followed the tanks from Wad Burkeen, the village where he’s now based, about 10 minutes walk from his home in Jenin camp, which he had been forced out of, along with 14 members of his family, on January 26.
The West Bank refugee camps host thousands of Palestinians whose forebears were ethnically cleansed by Zionist gangs to make way for the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948.
Over the years, armed resistance has sprung up there. In 2002, as Israeli tanks bulldozed the alleys of these camps, fighters were ready with booby traps and ambushes.
But as the three tanks rolled into Jenin this week, and became stationed at Al-Jabriyat neighbourhood, they found no resistance.
Political, not tactical
The tank deployment comes after more than a month of Israeli assaults on the occupied West Bank, dubbed “Operation Iron Wall”, which it launched just as a ceasefire took hold in Gaza.
According to analysts, Israel’s motivation is political rather than security-driven, seen as a move to appease far-right Israeli politicians angered by the ceasefire.
The assaults in the West Bank have killed at least 61 people and displaced more than 40,000 since late January.
“The war in Gaza and now in the West Bank is part of Israel’s collective punishment strategy,” said Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee.
“The destruction of Palestinian cities and the displacement of residents are … political manoeuvres designed to tighten Israel’s grip on the occupied territories,” adding that it would pave the way for the building of more illegal Israeli settlements.
A test for Israel’s long-term plans
The latest developments in Jenin, analysts say, are Israel testing its vision for the West Bank, especially as Minister of Defence Israel Katz has said those who were displaced from the refugee camps will not be allowed to return.
According to Palestinian political analyst Ahmad Abu al-Hija, the tank deployment is part of an Israeli strategy to reshape the security and governance structures of the West Bank.
“What’s happening in Jenin is … about redefining Israeli control and potentially integrating elements of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces into an Israeli-dominated framework,” he said.
These attacks, he added, are also linked to Israel’s push to dismantle refugee camps and the concept of Palestinians as refugees, which became apparent when it launched what seemed to be a campaign against UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees
“Eliminating UNRWA is part of erasing Palestinians’ right of return. If the Jenin camp is dismantled, it will set a precedent for other camps across the West Bank, turning them into regular urban neighbourhoods and forcing Palestinians to integrate into Israeli-controlled municipal systems,” he explained.
Far-right pressure and West Bank annexation
For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing growing domestic unrest over his handling of the Gaza war and a ceasefire reached in spite of his far-right partners, the escalation in the West Bank serves as a political distraction.
His far-right allies, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have long called for the annexation of the West Bank and the expulsion of Palestinians.
“Netanyahu is trying to survive politically by offering military escalation as a concession to his far-right coalition,” said Suleiman Basharat, director of the Yabous Center for Strategic Studies.
“Deploying tanks in Jenin is … a spectacle designed to send a message to his base that he is taking decisive action” and “to shock Palestinians into submission.
“By deploying heavy military machinery, it aims to create a sense of inevitability about its control over the West Bank.”
A manufactured crisis
Palestinian analyst Ahmed Rafiq Awad, director of the Al-Quds Center for Political Studies, said that while Israel aims to portray its military operations as necessary security measures, the excessive force used in the West Bank risks reigniting widespread Palestinian resistance.
“The level of brutality we’re seeing – mass arrests, home demolitions, and continuous raids – could push Palestinians toward another uprising,” Basharat warned.
“If Israel continues this level of violence, we may see a return to mass popular confrontations similar to those of the first and second Intifadas.”
Awad agreed that amidst a “muted” response from the international community, and “without real consequences, Netanyahu and his far-right allies will continue expanding settlements, erasing refugee camps, and entrenching the occupation under the guise of security.”
For Palestinians like al-Amouri, the presence of Israeli tanks in Jenin is a grim reminder that the occupation is deepening.
“We’ve lived under their occupation all our lives. This is nothing new. In fact, this is all too familiar,” he said.
This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.