Jerusalem: Nine Palestinians have been killed and 35 injured by Israeli forces during a major operation in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Palestinian media reported that there were a series of air strikes as a large number of troops moved into the city and its refugee camp, backed by drones, helicopters and armoured bulldozers.
Israel’s prime minister said it launched an “extensive and significant” operation to “defeat terrorism” in Jenin, long seen as a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups, the BBC reported.
According to media reports, it comes three days after the start of a ceasefire in Gaza and highlights the threat of more violence in the West Bank, where suspected Israeli settlers also went on the rampage overnight.
Jenin’s governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP news agency that “what is happening is an invasion of the camp”, adding: “It came quickly, Apache [helicopters] in the sky and Israeli military vehicles everywhere.”
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, cited local sources as saying that Israeli forces were “completely besieging” Jenin camp, and that armoured bulldozers had dug up several streets.
It also cited the director of Jenin’s Government hospital, Wissam Bakr, as saying that three doctors and two nurses were among those wounded by Israeli gunfire.
Palestinian security personnel reportedly withdrew from some of their positions around Jenin refugee camp before the Israeli forces moved in on Tuesday morning, the report said.
Brig-Gen Anwar Rajab, a spokesman of the Palestinian security forces, told AFP that Israeli forces had “opened fire on civilians and security forces”, resulting in a number of injuries.
On Tuesday evening, the Palestinian health ministry reported that eight men and a 16-year-old boy, whom it named as Mutaz Abu Tbeikh, had been killed by Israeli forces in Jenin.
Another man was shot and killed by Israeli troops in the village of Tianik, about 8km (5 miles) to the north-west, it added.
A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Jenin operation – dubbed “Iron Wall” – was an “additional step in achieving the objective we have set: bolstering security” in the West Bank.
“We are acting methodically and with determination against the Iranian axis wherever it reaches: in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and [the West Bank] – and we are still active.”
Israel accuses Iran of smuggling weapons and funds to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other armed groups in the West Bank to foment unrest, the report said.
Israeli media cited a military source as saying that the goals of the operation were to preserve its “freedom of action” in the West Bank, dismantle armed groups’ infrastructure, and eliminate imminent threats. The source also said the operation would continue for “as long as necessary”.
The prime minister of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Mustafa, condemned the raid, saying it was the latest in a series of “aggressive Israeli measures” against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to Wafa.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad both called on Palestinians in the West Bank to escalate attacks against Israel in response to the Jenin operation.
There have been a number of previous Israeli military operations Jenin.
And recently, the PA’s security forces carried out a controversial, weeks-long operation against armed groups there, including Hamas and PIJ, trying to reassert their control.
There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed as Israeli forces have intensified their raids, saying they are trying to stem deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Israel.
UNI
