Jerusalem, Israel.- Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians on Thursday, including a 61-year-old woman, and wounded several more during a raid in a troubled area of the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, in one of the deadliest days in Israel. recent years in the territory.
The Palestinian Authority then declared that it would cease security cooperation with Israel. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, made the announcement at a press conference in Ramallah shortly after the Jenin event.
The two sides maintain such ties out of a mutual desire to contain Islamic extremists, and the disruption of such ties raises fears that attacks by radicals will not be prevented.
The Palestinian Authority has in the past said the same as a form of protest, but with little success, partly because it benefits from such cooperation and partly because the US and Israel pressure it to maintain it.
The incident occurred in what Palestinian officials described as a vicious, broad daylight operation in the Jenin refugee camp, an insurgent stronghold in the West Bank that has been the scene of almost daily detention raids by Palestinians for nearly a year. the Israeli forces.
Then in a separate incident, Israeli forces killed a 22-year-old Palestinian amid protests north of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.
Hamas, the radical Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, has sworn revenge for the Israeli raid. In the past, violence in the West Bank has prompted retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza.
Numerous protests broke out in the Palestinian territories in which demonstrators pledged solidarity with Jenin. Palestinians in that refugee camp dug mass graves for the dead.
Barbara Leaf, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, said the government was extremely distraught by the situation and the reported civilian deaths in Jenin were “extremely regrettable.” But she added that the decision to suspend security cooperation with Israel is a mistake.
“Obviously, we don’t think that’s the right step at this time,” the diplomat told reporters. “We want them to go in the other direction, in the direction of communicating with each other.”
The conflict escalated this month, with 29 Palestinians killed since the start of the year. It was not immediately clear how many of those killed Thursday were affiliated with armed groups.
