Four days of Israeli military operations in the Tubas district of the northern West Bank last week amounted to what many observers described as a field simulation of a broader Israeli war on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, aimed at advancing the far-right government’s plans to assert full control.
Israeli analysts said the operation formed part of army preparations for a potential security escalation that Israel has been signalling with all its capabilities.
Israel withdrew from Tubas after four days of extensive operations carried out by multiple army units. Palestinian medical and local sources reported treating more than 166 injuries during the four-day campaign, most resulting from beatings and abuse by Israeli soldiers. Around 60 of those injured were transferred to hospitals for further treatment.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club said Israeli forces detained around 200 Palestinians during the raid, later releasing most of them. Media sources reported that 12 Palestinians were formally arrested.
The Israeli operation, amplified by Israeli media under government direction, was launched officially by the Israeli military as an offensive in the northern West Bank, in which Apache attack helicopters were deployed in a significant escalation.
According to Israeli sources, the military and the Shin Bet security agency announced the launch of a wide operation from the previous night aimed at thwarting what they termed “terror” in the northern West Bank.
A military spokesperson said three brigades were operating in the Tubas district. The Walla news site quoted security and political sources saying the army had begun by closing roads in the area to tighten control.
Palestinian journalist Nour Al-Faras told Al-Ahram Weekly that Israeli forces launched the raid shortly before midnight on 26 November, storming large parts of Tubas and the neighbouring villages of Al-Badhan and Talluza.
She said that Israeli bulldozers and military jeeps had sealed off the district from surrounding governorates, blocking internal routes with earth mounds and military checkpoints.
At dawn, Israeli forces deployed further reinforcements to Tubas, escorted by military bulldozers entering Tubas city and the towns of Tammoun, Aqaba, Tayseer and Wadi Al-Faraa, closing all access routes with earth barriers and armoured vehicles.
Al-Faras said dozens of Palestinians were detained in multiple locations and interrogated in the field and later released, while two former prisoners, Imad Arsan Bani Odeh and Mohieddin Abu Yazeed, were arrested in Tammoun.
The final number of detainees remains unclear.
The Tubas governorate issued a report detailing the scale of the damage caused by the Israeli raid. It documented 214 injuries, resulting from severe beatings, home raids, and detentions.
Seventy-one people were transferred to hospitals, while the Red Crescent treated the remaining cases on site.
Some 220 Palestinians were detained or held in harsh conditions and handcuffed and left without food or water for hours. They were subjected to electric shocks, severe beatings, and interrogations. Most were later released, while 10 Palestinians remain in Israeli custody.
During the raid, Israeli forces stormed at least 200 homes across Tubas, Tammoun, Tayseer, Aqaba, and the Al-Faraa Refugee Camp, destroying furniture and reportedly stealing money and personal belongings.
The Israeli forces expelled 41 families from their homes, turning the residential buildings into military posts and field interrogation centres.
Tubas-based journalist and Israeli affairs specialist Mohamed Abu Allan said the district and its surrounding five localities had been under near-continuous military raids since midnight.
He described widespread home incursions and searches that caused extensive destruction and lasted for hours.
Abu Allan said the Israeli military has claimed that the operation aimed to pursue Palestinian fighters and prevent “the establishment of militant infrastructure.” He said the army distributed leaflets warning residents not to allow their area to become “a refuge for militants,” threatening that Tubas could face the same fate as the Jenin, Nour Shams, and Tulkarm refugee camps.
From dawn on the first day until the end of the fourth, Israeli forces carried out broad raids throughout the district, storming dozens of homes and expelling families.
Among those expelled were the families of prisoner Amin Ghareeb and his brother Bilal in the Al-Mashmas neighbourhood of Tammoun.
Ghareeb told the Weekly that Israeli soldiers stormed their homes at 5:00am accompanied by bulldozers and armoured vehicles, terrifying residents, smashing furniture, and ordering the entire extended family including infants to leave immediately without taking any belongings.
Ghareeb said about 20 families were expelled in Tammoun alone. The Israeli army then turned the evacuated homes into military bases. He and his relatives were forced to walk at night to his elderly father’s house, now sheltering 25 family members in a 100-square-metre home, without basic needs, particularly milk for three infants.
He described the fear his family felt while walking past bulldozers and armed soldiers and witnessing soldiers beating a young man.
Ghareeb said ambulances were banned from moving, preventing families from obtaining food or infant formula. He said an elderly man died after Israeli forces prevented an ambulance from reaching him.
Tubas Governor Ahmed Asaad of the Palestinian Authority (PA) said Israel had carried out a large-scale raid on the district, involving heavy forces, bulldozers, and Apache helicopters in a military manoeuvre not seen in years.
Following the withdrawal of the forces, Asaad instructed emergency committees to immediately begin reopening roads, removing earth mounds, repairing water and electricity networks, and documenting damages to restore normal life for returning students, workers, and employees.
He condemned the attack, noting that Tubas already faces daily raids and abuse by Israeli forces via surrounding checkpoints. He also visited affected towns and villages accompanied by municipal leaders and local councillors.
Abu Allan questioned why Israel publicly announces such large-scale raids when incursions in the West Bank have become routine. He said this suggests that the Tubas raid may have been part of military field training, rather than a conventional operation, even though Israel is indeed intent on escalating in the West Bank.
He noted that Apache helicopters fired heavily during the raid without clear justification, reinforcing the theory that Israel was using the area for a military simulation.
Abu Allan said the West Bank had been in a state of escalation even before the Gaza war. Israeli raids, assassinations, and arrests have continued daily.
Simultaneously, Israel has expanded settlement activity, land confiscations, and forced displacements, which he described as equally, if not more, dangerous.
Since the war on Gaza began, around 33 Palestinian communities across the northern Jordan Valley down to Masafer Yatta in southern Hebron have been fully or partially displaced, Abu Allan said, emphasising the coordinated roles of the Israeli army and settlers in this campaign.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 4 December, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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