After Gaza ‘ceasefire’, Israel’s drone wars move to devastate the West Bank.

Cora Morris
IDF drone strike on car in Qabatiya, near Jenin, 2025

‘Operation Iron Wall’ sees renewed aerial strikes on civilian infrastructure and the displacement of as many as 40,000 West Bank Palestinians since 21st of January

Israeli occupation attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have intensified heavily since the beginning of the ceasefire in Gaza, with drone strikes a primary tool of destruction in the territory. Announced on the 21st of January, two days after the ceasefire took formal effect, ‘Operation Iron Wall’ purports to protect Israeli settlers by targeting ‘Iran-backed’ West Bank militants, according to an IDF press release. However, the rate and scale of the attacks – which has included an onslaught of military bulldozers and tanks, all but emptying Jenin’s 24,000 person* refugee camp – mark a clear objective to make life in the West Bank unlivable. Palestinian commentators have alleged a ‘Gaza-ification’ of the territory, with heavy, ongoing damage to civilian infrastructure and a mounting death toll. As of the 4th of March, an estimated 40,000 people have been displaced from refugee camps across the West Bank now occupied by the IDF, with a statement from Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz on February 23rd that residents ‘would not be permitted to return’.

Evidence points to an increase in drone strikes in the West Bank even prior to the ceasefire in Gaza, with grave consequences for Palestinian life. Reporting by Al-Jazeera details a January 8th strike on a home in the town of Tammun, 13 kilometres northeast of Nablus, that killed 3 people, including 8 and 10-year-old siblings Reda and Humza Bsharat, as well as their 23-year-old relative. In a video interview, a family member described the attack as ‘a message from the occupation, that no-one is safe in their homes’. This sense – already felt sharply by West Bank Palestinians subject to regular surveillance, occupation intimidation, and settler violence – has become once again inescapable in the weeks since the renewed ‘operation’ began.

Using data extracted from social media posts and ACLED’s database, we estimate that to date at least 19 drone strikes to have hit Palestinian territories in the West Bank since the 21st of January – however, there is a strong likelihood that these accounts are not comprehensive, and that this estimate is conservative. Available evidence suggests these have mostly been concentrated around Jenin. However, other intensive targeting has taken place in Qabatiya, Tammun, and Tulkarm, towns and cities with similarly large numbers in densely-populated camps. In Jenin, the destruction of key infrastructure using drones and bulldozers began forcefully on the 21st, with a reported death toll of at least 8, and 35 wounded, in the city alone. Videos posted online claim to display drone strikes on al-Damaj, a neighbourhood in the camp, with explosions audible in the recordings of a smartphone from a nearby area.

Israeli Drone Strikes in the West Bank, Jan-Feb 2025
Date Location Description
21/01/25 Jenin refugee camp Reports of multiple strikes during the first day of Operation Iron Wall, including on the neighbourhood of al-Damaj.
21/01/25 Burqin Reports of a drone strike on a house in Burqin, west of Jenin. Casualties unknown.
24/01/25 Qatabiya Drone strike on a vehicle in Qabatiya, just south of Jenin. At least two people killed, with strike celebrated by IDF in an X post.
26/01/25 Balata camp, Nablus Drone strike on a cemetery in the Balata Camp, warning Palestinians that were in the cemetery to evacuate the area according to ACLED.. No casualties reported.
27/01/25 Nur Shams refugee camp, Tulkarm Drone strike on a vehicle in Nur Shams refugee camp, in Tulkarm, targeting Hamas fighters. X posts by the IDF celebrate the ‘elimination’ of Ayoub Abu Atiya, ‘along with another terrorist’.
29/01/25 Tammun Drone strike in Tammun, 13km northeast of Nablus, with reports of 10 people killed and one injured. IDF claimed they killed 10 Hamas and Katibat Tammun (PIJ) militants, while Defence For Children International criticised the killing of a 17-year-old boy, Jihad Naser Yousef Bani Matar.
31/01/25 Jenin Several reported strikes in Jenin led to multiple deaths. A first drone strike, on a street, killed 16-year old Ahmad al-Saadi, and wounded two others critically. An hour and a half later, Ahmad’s older brother, Tamam, was killed, alongside 32 year old Nour Al-Saadi, thought to be wanted by Israel. The two were travelling by motorcycle from the hospital where Tammun worked.
31/01/25 Qabatiya A drone strike on a car in Qatabiya killed two people inside – named as Abdul Hadi Alawneh, Saleh Zakarneh – while a child, 15-year-old Diaa al-Din Ahmed Omar Saba’neh succumbed to injuries from the strike two weeks later on the 15th of February. His father was also injured.
31/01/25 Al Yamun A further strike in Al-Yamun, near Jenin, targeted a house, causing a large fire according to ACLED. No casualties were reported.
05/02/25 Tammun ACLED reports four drone strikes on areas in Tammun injured one person, with no further information available.
07/02/25 Jenin Drone strikes hit houses in Jenin according to ACLED, with no information on casualties available.
07/02/25 Tammun A drone strike hit an area in Tammun, with at least one person injured.
13/02/25 Jenin An Israeli occupation drone targeted and destroyed a vehicle within Jenin refugee camp. No reported casualties.
14/02/25 Jenin An Israeli military drone bombed houses in Jenin camp, with no reported casualties.

As in Gaza, children and the elderly have not been spared in the IDF’s calculations of who constitutes a legitimate target of violence in the West Bank, including in directed drone strikes. US-based outlet Electronic Intifada reports that of the 16 children killed in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, at least half were killed by drones. 

On the 31st of January, 16-year old Ahmad al-Saadi was killed in a strike in Jenin. Just an hour later, his 27-year-old brother Tamam – a member of the Young Ambassadors for Peace, an Israeli–Palestinian peacebuilding coalition for bereaved young people – was killed on his way home from Jenin’s hospital, where he worked as a nurse. The strike also killed 32 year old Nour al-Saadi. “They can kill us suddenly”, Tamam’s father, Muhyedin, told The National: “…It’s different from previous years, even the 2002 invasion was not as ugly as this. It’s no longer just soldiers coming in and operating on the streets. It’s now sudden, from the skies.”

While strikes devastate lives, homes, and families, the IDF continues to employ drone technologies in other ways, through well-worn tactics of aerial surveillance and intimidation to which Palestinians have long been subject. On the 22nd of January, videos circulated on social media displaying small quadcopter drones equipped with loudspeakers announcing a full curfew for residents of Jenin camp. On the 3rd of February, similar videos displayed a drone calling for residents to evacuate ahead of an incoming IDF bombing. And on the 6th of February, local journalists captured the moment an occupation quadcopter hovered ominously in front of them while on-duty at the forcibly emptied Tulkarm refugee camp, in an obvious act of surveillance.

Israel’s drone arsenal is infamously extensive, with the country among the earliest pioneers of UAV technologies, and their development clearly motivated by its concern for aerial control over the Occupied Territories. The Israeli Aerospace Industries Heron-1, a MALE-type surveillance drone, has been in operation since 2005 but remains integral to the country’s military, which is thought to possess as many as 250. A more ‘advanced’, armed model – the Eitan – is also in regular use, while the army is thought to operate a further 250 of Elbit’s Hermes drone – an often armed model, responsible for many of the most deadly strikes in the Gaza genocide. This includes a strike known to have killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in April 2024.

However, it is clear that Israel also operates an innumerable number of other, smaller drones, including quadcopters that are often fitted with armed capabilities –  such as grenades and mounted snipers. In mid-2024, an investigation by Declassified UK revealed the UK MoD’s purchase and testing of new small drones built by Israeli firm Xtend, fitted with AI capabilities, and operated via virtual reality headsets – which make launching strikes “just like a game”, according to the firm’s co-founder. Declassified describes the drones as ‘battle-tested in Gaza’ – but there is every possibility they have also been deployed in this most recent West Bank onslaught. The UK has also procured several other drone systems – including the Elbit Thor mini-UAS, and the Elbit Magni-X micro-drone – from Israeli firms in recent years.

For further information on Israel’s use and development of drones, see our previous reports: Israel and the Drone Wars (2014), and ‘Precise’ strikes: Fractured Bodies, Fractured Lives (2019).

 

* Official population numbers for refugee camps in the West Bank are contested; Jenin’s population of refugees registered with UNRWA is 24,239 as of 2023, but it is likely that many more reside in the camps without formal registration

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