Israel stepping up West Bank offensive

Israel said on Sunday it was scaling up a weekslong offensive in the occupied West Bank sending in tanks to a militant stronghold and pledging to keep troops in place for the next year in areas where Palestinians have fledIsraeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to prepare to remain in some of the West Bankrsquos refugee camps from where he said some 40000 Palestinians had fled leaving the areas ldquoemptied of residentsrdquoHe said in a statement he had ordered the military to ldquoprepare for an extended stay in the camps that were cleared for the coming year and to not allow the return of residents or for terror to grow againrdquoIsrael launched a new offensive on the city of Jenin on January 21mdashtwo days after the ceasefire that paused the war in Gaza took effectmdashand then deepened it to include other areas nearby among them urban refugee camps that house the descendants of Palestinians who fled their homes in wars with Israel decades agoThe military said on Sunday it was expanding the raid in the West Bank to other areas and was sending tanks to Jenin long a bastion of armed struggle against IsraelHezbollah launchers struckIsraeli aircraft struck a Hezbollah site containing rocket launchers and other weapons on Sunday the Israel Defense Forces IDF confirmed According to Lebanese media reports the strikes took place in the southern Lebanese area of Tyre The IDF said some of the launchers it struck posed an ldquoimminent threatrdquo tothe countryHezbollah chief honouredThousands of people gathered in Beirut early on Sunday to attend the funeral of Hezbollahrsquos former leader nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital Hassan Nasrallah was killed when Israel dropped over 80 bombs on the grouprsquos main operations roomPrisoner release delayedIsrael says the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners is delayed ldquountil the release of the next hostages has been assured and without the humiliating ceremoniesrdquo at handovers of Israeli captives in Gaza The statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahursquos office came early Sunday as vehicles apparently carrying prisoners left the open gates of Ofer prison only to turn around and go back inJan 19Day ceasefire deal came into effectThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever