The large-scale raid on the Jenin countryside, which began on a Monday, is one of the most intensive military operations in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades. It bears the hallmarks of the military tactics employed by Israel during the second Palestinian intifada in the early 2000s and coincides with a time when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing increased pressure from his ultranationalist political allies for a more aggressive response. stand firm against recent attacks on Israeli settlers, including last month’s shooting that killed four people.
On Tuesday morning, debris littered the streets of Jenin and there were reports of damage to businesses. Columns of black smoke periodically dotted the horizon over the countryside of the city of the same name in the north of the West Bank, which has been a stronghold of the Palestinian insurgency for years.
Several thousand Palestinians fled after the start of the incursion and took shelter in shelters or with relatives outside the camp, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. Residents indicated that the camp had neither water nor electricity.
In the West Bank, Palestinians held a general strike to protest the Israeli operation.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health, for its part, affirmed on Tuesday that the death toll in the operation rose to 10 people after the two deaths registered during the night. According to the Israeli army, they were all insurgents, but did not provide further details.
The incursion was motivated because some 50 attacks against Israelis have come out of Jenin in the past year, a military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said on Monday.
The Jenin countryside and the adjacent city have been one of the main scenes of the new wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians that began to escalate in the spring of 2022. It was also a major focus during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s. .
Hundreds of Israeli soldiers were still in the field on Tuesday, seizing weapons and explosives and destroying tunnels and command posts, the army added.
Israeli media reported the arrest of at least 120 suspected Palestinian insurgents since Monday.
The Palestinian autonomous government of the West Bank and three Arab nations that have normalized relations with Israel — Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates — condemned the Israeli operation, as did the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
More than 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the region so far in 2023, according to a count by The Associated Press, and about half were affiliated with insurgent groups. During this time, Palestinian attacks against Israelis claimed the lives of at least 26 Israelis.
Israel maintains that most of those killed were insurgents, but among the victims there are also young people who threw rocks in protest of the raids and other people unconnected to the clashes.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War, as well as East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, the three territories the Palestinians want for their future independent state.
FUENTE: Associated Press
