History repeats At the end of the day, violence in the West Bank solves nothing

Jenin 21 years ago. Jenin today. In 2002, it was attack helicopters hovering above the West Bank city's refugee camp over a week of fighting. The new offensive has been led by drone strikes as Israeli soldiers entered the city, reducing the centre of the camp to rubble.

- Peter Beaumont

When the smoke cleared in what became known as the Battle of Jenin in 2002, more than 50 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were dead, 13 of them killed in a single ambush.

The current Israeli military operation was being described as the biggest in the West Bank since Israeli troops went into Palestinian cities during the second intifada, surrounding Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah, and putting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem under siege. Those were violent days in the West Bank, when Israeli tanks were on streets noisy with gun battles and angry funerals that would follow.