As Israel drops bombs on the occupied West Bank, some fear it will become a new Gaza

Once rare, Israel‘s use of airstrikes in the occupied West Bank has soared since Oct. 7, 2023, stoking fears that it is deploying the military tactics there that it used in the Gaza Strip, some 60 miles away.

“There wasn’t a time in the history of the occupation, not even during the Second Intifada, that the use of airstrikes had become so severe and deadly,” in the West Bank, Shai Parnes, spokesperson for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, told NBC News, referring to the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s.

However, by B’Tselem’s count, since Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli military has increasingly dropped bombs on the territory: at least 69 airstrikes in the West Bank killed 261 people, including 41 under the age of 19. At least 28 of those 261 people have been killed since Jan. 19, Parnes said.

The rise in airstrikes, according to a report published by B’Tselem on Wednesday, speaks to the increasingly destructive path that human rights groups say Israel has taken in the West Bank, with its operations accelerating since the Jan. 19 ceasefire in Gaza.