JENIN, West Bank — Israeli tanks moved into the occupied West Bank on Sunday for the first time in decades after the defense minister said troops will remain in parts of the territory for a year and tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled cannot return.
Associated Press journalists saw several tanks move along unpaved tracks into Jenin.
Israel is deepening its crackdown on the territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the northern West Bank on Jan. 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold — and expanded it to nearby areas.
Palestinians view the raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “increase the intensity of the activity to thwart terrorism” in all refugee camps in the West Bank.
“We will not allow the return of residents, and we will not allow terrorism to return and grow,” he said.
Earlier, Katz said he had instructed the military to prepare for “an extended stay” in some of the West Bank’s urban refugee camps from which about 40,000 Palestinians have fled, leaving them “emptied of residents.”
It was not clear how long Palestinians would be prevented from returning. Katz said Israeli troops would stay “for the coming year.” Netanyahu said they would stay “as long as needed.”
Tanks were last deployed in the West Bank in 2002, when Israel fought a deadly Palestinian uprising.
With fighting in Gaza and Lebanon on hold, Netanyahu has been under pressure from far-right governing partners to crack down on militancy in the West Bank. The U.N. says the current Israeli military operation is the longest since the early 2000s.
Under interim peace agreements from the early 1990s, Israel maintains control over large parts of the West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority administers other areas. Israel regularly sends troops into Palestinian zones but typically withdraws them after missions.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians want all three territories for their future independent state.
Meanwhile, the truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza remains tenuous.
A week is left in the ceasefire’s first phase, and no negotiations have been reported on the second phase. The truce’s collapse could lead to renewed fighting in Gaza, where Netanyahu says 63 hostages remain, about half of them believed dead, including a soldier captured in 2014.
“We are ready to return to intense fighting at any moment,” Netanyahu said Sunday. The military increased its “operational readiness” around Gaza.
The U.S. special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told CNN he expects the second phase to go forward, adding: “We have to get an extension of phase one and so I’ll be going into the region this week, probably Wednesday, to negotiate that.” He told CBS he will visit Qatar, Egypt, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
But a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud Mardawi, said Sunday the group will not engage in further discussions with Israel through mediators until Israel releases the 620 Palestinian prisoners meant to be freed on Saturday.
Israel said early Sunday it was delaying the release until it gets assurances that Hamas stops what Israel calls “humiliating” handovers of hostages in staged ceremonies criticized by the U.S. and Red Cross as cruel.
