What Israel is calling "Operation Iron Wall" against Palestinian armed groups has triggered an exodus of around 40,000 people from four camps in the north of the occupied West Ban

Israeli forces have expanded their military presence in the occupied West Bank, continuing a month-long offensive.

By Ali Sawafta JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) -Israeli bulldozers have demolished large areas of the now virtually empty Jenin refugee camp and appear to be carving wide roadways through its once-crowded warren of alleyways,

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Palestinian refugee camp of Tulkarm on Friday afternoon. While in Tulkarm, Netanyahu received a security briefing from Brig.-Gen. Yaki Dolf, Commander of the West Bank Division, Big.-Gen. Hisham Ibrahim, Head of the Civil Administration, and the Commander of the Ephraim Brigade.

The move came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a stop to the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel’s military sent tanks into the occupied West Bank for the first time in more than two decades as it expanded operations in the territory on Sunday in a move decried by Palestinian authorities as an escalation of aggression.

The operation, during a fragile ceasefire in Gaza that has halted fighting there for the past six weeks, has emptied some of the biggest refugee camps in the northern West Bank in what some Palestinians see as a trial run for wider clearances later.

Israel on Monday demolished houses and cleared a wide roadway through the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. This is part of weeks of operation against militant groups that have forced tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes.