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Jenin, Palestinian Territories: IsraelThe biggest military operation in years in the occupied West Bank continued for a second day Tuesday, killing at least 10 Palestinians and forcing thousands to flee their homes as the government said it bombed “with great force” the militant stronghold.
The raid, conducted under the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, targeted the northern city of Jenin and used armored vehicles, military bulldozers and drone strikes.
On Tuesday morning, shops closed in Jenin, with very few people littering the streets with debris and burning roadblocks from the previous day’s fighting.
An AFP correspondent said that drones were flying overhead.
in the city Refugee The camp – an urban community once inhabited by 18,000 people – had several streets destroyed, apparently breaking electricity and oil cables and puddles of water after an Israeli bomb-proof bulldozer passed by.
The Israeli military said its “anti-terror activities” in Jenin continued on Tuesday night, as troops worked to “neutralize” an underground hatch used to store explosives in the refugee camp.
“Moreover, IDF soldiers found and dismantled two operations rooms belonging to terrorist organizations in the area,” the army said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to the IDF.
Prior to this operation, Israel had already stepped up its raids in the northern West Bank, which has seen a string of recent attacks on Israelis as well as Jewish settler violence targeting Palestinians.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has worsened since last year, and has escalated further under Netanyahu’s coalition government that includes far-right allies.
“In the past five years, this was the worst raid,” said Qasim Benegadher, a nurse in the hospital’s morgue, referring to “many” patients who sustained gunshot wounds and explosive injuries.
Army spokesman Daniel Hajjari told reporters that the Israeli forces “did not intend to stay in the camp”, but that we were “preparing for the more serious situation” of prolonged fighting.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 10 people were killed and 100 wounded, 20 of them seriously.
An injured Israeli soldier was evacuated by helicopter.
Since the start of the operation, about 3,000 people have fled their homes in the Jenin camp, Kamal Abu al-Rub, deputy governor of Jenin, told AFP, adding that arrangements are underway to house them in schools and other shelters in the city of Jenin.
In the darkness of a Monday night, the women carried their young children while the elders moved their belongings through the streets.
“I saw them moving bulldozers into the camp, they were destroying buildings… These are people’s homes,” Bader Shughul, a resident of Jenin, told AFP.
The army said soldiers and gunmen exchanged fire in a mosque in the camp, and weapons and explosives were later found in the building.
Mahmoud Hawashin, a resident of the camp, predicted that “if there is more bloodshed of the Palestinians, there will be more bloodshed of the Israelis.”
The United Nations says that the Jenin camp has “the highest rates of unemployment and poverty” among the West Bank camps, and that the military operation has disrupted water and electricity for “large areas” of it.
Netanyahu said that Israeli forces in the “terrorist nest in Jenin” are “destroying command centers and seizing large weapons.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told reporters that Israel was hitting “very hard”.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry described the escalation as “an open war against the people of Jenin.”
The Jenin area is nominally under the control of the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank.
The ruling Fatah party declared a general strike affecting private business and other sectors, which saw all PA employees stay at home.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” about the violence and called for respect for international humanitarian law.
Neighboring countries raised similar concerns and called on the UAE to “immediately stop the repeated and escalating campaigns against the Palestinian people.”
The United States said its ally Israel had the right to “defend its people against … terrorist groups” but called for the protection of civilians.
The League of Arab States is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss “Arab mobilization to confront the Israeli attack on Jenin.”
On Monday, the army said it had bombed a “joint operations center” for a group called the Jenin Brigade, a weapons depot, a “surveillance and reconnaissance” site, and a hideout for alleged attackers of Israeli targets.
And in the besieged Gaza Strip, demonstrators burned tires near the border fence with Israel.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six Day War in 1967.
Excluding annexed East Jerusalem, the area is now home to some 490,000 Israelis in settlements considered illegal under international law.
The Palestinians, who seek their own independent state, want Israel to withdraw from all lands it captured in 1967 and dismantle all Jewish settlements.
But Netanyahu has vowed to “strengthen the settlements” and has shown no interest in reviving moribund peace talks since 2014.
At least 187 Palestinians and 25 Israelis, Ukrainians and Italians have been killed this year, according to an AFP tally compiled by official sources on both sides.
Among them, on the Palestinian side, are fighters and civilians, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians and three members of the Arab minority.
The numbers compare to at least 26 Israelis and 200 Palestinians killed across Israel and the Palestinian territories in the whole of 2022. Most of them were in the West Bank.
The raid, conducted under the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, targeted the northern city of Jenin and used armored vehicles, military bulldozers and drone strikes.
On Tuesday morning, shops closed in Jenin, with very few people littering the streets with debris and burning roadblocks from the previous day’s fighting.
An AFP correspondent said that drones were flying overhead.
in the city Refugee The camp – an urban community once inhabited by 18,000 people – had several streets destroyed, apparently breaking electricity and oil cables and puddles of water after an Israeli bomb-proof bulldozer passed by.
The Israeli military said its “anti-terror activities” in Jenin continued on Tuesday night, as troops worked to “neutralize” an underground hatch used to store explosives in the refugee camp.
“Moreover, IDF soldiers found and dismantled two operations rooms belonging to terrorist organizations in the area,” the army said in a statement on Tuesday, referring to the IDF.
Prior to this operation, Israel had already stepped up its raids in the northern West Bank, which has seen a string of recent attacks on Israelis as well as Jewish settler violence targeting Palestinians.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has worsened since last year, and has escalated further under Netanyahu’s coalition government that includes far-right allies.
“In the past five years, this was the worst raid,” said Qasim Benegadher, a nurse in the hospital’s morgue, referring to “many” patients who sustained gunshot wounds and explosive injuries.
Army spokesman Daniel Hajjari told reporters that the Israeli forces “did not intend to stay in the camp”, but that we were “preparing for the more serious situation” of prolonged fighting.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 10 people were killed and 100 wounded, 20 of them seriously.
An injured Israeli soldier was evacuated by helicopter.
Since the start of the operation, about 3,000 people have fled their homes in the Jenin camp, Kamal Abu al-Rub, deputy governor of Jenin, told AFP, adding that arrangements are underway to house them in schools and other shelters in the city of Jenin.
In the darkness of a Monday night, the women carried their young children while the elders moved their belongings through the streets.
“I saw them moving bulldozers into the camp, they were destroying buildings… These are people’s homes,” Bader Shughul, a resident of Jenin, told AFP.
The army said soldiers and gunmen exchanged fire in a mosque in the camp, and weapons and explosives were later found in the building.
Mahmoud Hawashin, a resident of the camp, predicted that “if there is more bloodshed of the Palestinians, there will be more bloodshed of the Israelis.”
The United Nations says that the Jenin camp has “the highest rates of unemployment and poverty” among the West Bank camps, and that the military operation has disrupted water and electricity for “large areas” of it.
Netanyahu said that Israeli forces in the “terrorist nest in Jenin” are “destroying command centers and seizing large weapons.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told reporters that Israel was hitting “very hard”.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry described the escalation as “an open war against the people of Jenin.”
The Jenin area is nominally under the control of the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank.
The ruling Fatah party declared a general strike affecting private business and other sectors, which saw all PA employees stay at home.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” about the violence and called for respect for international humanitarian law.
Neighboring countries raised similar concerns and called on the UAE to “immediately stop the repeated and escalating campaigns against the Palestinian people.”
The United States said its ally Israel had the right to “defend its people against … terrorist groups” but called for the protection of civilians.
The League of Arab States is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss “Arab mobilization to confront the Israeli attack on Jenin.”
On Monday, the army said it had bombed a “joint operations center” for a group called the Jenin Brigade, a weapons depot, a “surveillance and reconnaissance” site, and a hideout for alleged attackers of Israeli targets.
And in the besieged Gaza Strip, demonstrators burned tires near the border fence with Israel.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six Day War in 1967.
Excluding annexed East Jerusalem, the area is now home to some 490,000 Israelis in settlements considered illegal under international law.
The Palestinians, who seek their own independent state, want Israel to withdraw from all lands it captured in 1967 and dismantle all Jewish settlements.
But Netanyahu has vowed to “strengthen the settlements” and has shown no interest in reviving moribund peace talks since 2014.
At least 187 Palestinians and 25 Israelis, Ukrainians and Italians have been killed this year, according to an AFP tally compiled by official sources on both sides.
Among them, on the Palestinian side, are fighters and civilians, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians and three members of the Arab minority.
The numbers compare to at least 26 Israelis and 200 Palestinians killed across Israel and the Palestinian territories in the whole of 2022. Most of them were in the West Bank.
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