Palestinians accuse Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ as 70 killed in West Bank
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The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces killed 70 people in the territory in 2025.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories – The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank
In a statement, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing”.
Later, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said there had been “70 martyrs in the West Bank since the beginning of this year”, with 10 children, one woman and two elderly people among the dead.
The ministry confirmed to AFP they were “killed by the Israeli occupation”.
The figures showed 38 people killed in Jenin and 15 in Tubas in the north of the West Bank. One was killed in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, it added.
The Israeli military launched a major offensive in the West Bank on Jan 21 aimed at rooting out Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area, which has long been a hotbed of militancy.
“We demand the intervention of the US administration before it is too late, to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against our people and our land,” Mr Rudeineh told the Palestinian official news agency Wafa in a statement coinciding with a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
On Feb 2, the Israeli army said it had killed more than 50 “terrorists” during the operation that began on Jan 21 and in air strikes the preceding week.
Mr Netanyahu is visiting Washington, where he is expected to begin talks on a second phase of Israel’s truce with Hamas in Gaza on Feb 3.
Before departing for Washington, he told reporters he would discuss “victory over Hamas”, countering Iran and freeing all hostages when he meets President Donald Trump on Feb 4.
It will be Mr Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House in January, a prioritisation Mr Netanyahu described as “telling”.
“I think it’s a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance,” he said before boarding his flight.
Mr Netanyahu said Israel’s wartime decisions had reshaped the Middle East and that, with Mr Trump’s support, this could go even further.
“I believe that working closely with President Trump, we can redraw it (the Middle East’s map) even further and for the better.”
Mr Trump, who has claimed credit for sealing the ceasefire deal after 15 months of war, said on Feb 2 that negotiations with Israel and other countries in the Middle East were “progressing”.
Mr Netanyahu’s office said he would begin discussions with Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Feb 3 over terms for the second phase of the Gaza truce.
The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.
Mr Trump has repeatedly touted a plan to “clean out” Gaza, calling for Palestinians to move to neighbouring countries such as Egypt or Jordan.
Qatar, which jointly mediated the ceasefire along with the US and Egypt, underscored the importance of allowing Palestinians to “return to their homes and land”.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, meanwhile, warned on Feb 3 that relocating Gazans “would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.
Under the Gaza ceasefire’s first, 42-day phase, Hamas is to free 33 hostages in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. AFP
