Israel’s ongoing military onslaught on the northern West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas has now entered its third day. The Israeli army has made a point of describing it as the largest-scale invasion of the West Bank since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, a message largely meant for its Israeli audience, and perhaps also meant to terrorize Palestinians as a form of psychological warfare — Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, said that Israel should deal with the West Bank the same way it has been dealing with Gaza, including “temporarily evacuating” residents.

The actual scale of “Operation Summer Camps,” as Israel calls it, has so far fallen short of the West Bank invasion from 22 years ago, but Palestinians have nonetheless been left wondering: is this the beginning of our Gaza moment?

From the early hours of the operation, Israeli forces sealed off Jenin and besieged its public hospital, while more forces raided the refugee camps of Nur Shams in Tulkarem and al-Fara’a in Tubas. In many respects, this has not been an unfamiliar sight in these camps even before October 7. Israel’s crackdown on armed resistance in the northern West Bank and elsewhere has steadily risen since late 2021.

The emergence of the Jenin Brigade, followed by the emergence of the Tubas and Tulkarem Brigades — and the short-lived Lions’ Den in Nablus — posed a serious challenge to Israel’s attempts to maintain stability in the West Bank as it expanded its settlement project.

The areas of Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarem, and Nablus became increasingly difficult to raid for Israeli forces, forcing Israel to further militarize these areas and deploy airstrikes........

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