Israel announced Sunday it was expanding its weekslong military operation against armed Palestinian groups in occupied West Bank and had deployed tanks in the territory’s north for the first time in two decades.
Adding to the escalating tensions, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said tens of thousands of Palestinian residents who have left the centres of militancy targeted by the Israeli operation and are displaced within West Bank will not be allowed to return to their homes.
Israel’s actions came after bombs exploded on three buses Thursday in different parking depots in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Israel. At least one other explosive device was discovered and dismantled. Police are still investigating, but they said the devices resembled improvised bombs made in West Bank.
