Israel launches military operation in West Bank, kills 9 Palestinians
Israel has carried out near-daily raids across the West Bank since Hamas' 7 October attack out of Gaza triggered the ongoing war there
AP
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Israeli armoured vehicles in the West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday. PHOTO: AP
West Bank, 28 Aug
Israel launched a
large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, where
its forces killed at least nine Palestinians and sealed off the volatile city
of Jenin, according to Palestinian officials.
Israel has carried out near-daily raids across the West Bank since Hamas' 7 October attack out of Gaza triggered the ongoing war there.
Lt. Col. Nadav
Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said that “large forces” had entered
the volatile city of Jenin, which has long been a militant stronghold, as well
as Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camp dating back to the 1948 Mideast war,
all in the northern West Bank.
He said the nine
dead were all militants, including three killed in an airstrike in Tulkarem and
another four in an airstrike in Al-Faraa. He said another five suspected militants
were arrested, and that the raids were the first stage of an even larger
operation aimed at preventing attacks on Israeli civilians.
Palestinian
militant groups said they were exchanging fire with the Israeli military. The
governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub, said on Palestinian radio that Israeli
forces had surrounded the city, blocking exit and entry points and access to
hospitals, and ripping up infrastructure in the camp.
The Palestinian
Health Ministry in the West Bank said Israeli forces had blocked the roads
leading to a hospital with dirt barriers and surrounded other medical
facilities in Jenin. Shoshani said the military was trying to prevent militants
from taking shelter in hospitals.
An Associated
Press reporter saw army vehicles blocking all the entrances to Al-Faraa camp.
Military jeeps and bulldozers entered the camp and soldiers could be seen
patrolling its alleyways by foot. Water leaked onto the damaged streets from
houses where fighting had damaged tanks and pipes. Shots rang out every few
minutes.
Israeli Foreign
Minister Israel Katz drew comparisons with Gaza and called for similar measures
in the West Bank.
“We must deal with
the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including
the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps might be
required. This is a war in every respect, and we must win it," he wrote on
the platform X.
Shoshani said
there was no plan to evacuate civilians.
Hamas called on
Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up, saying the raids are part of a larger
plan to expand the war in Gaza and blaming the escalation on U.S. support for
Israel. The militant group called on security forces loyal to the
Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which cooperate with Israel, to “join the
sacred battle of our people."
Nabil Abu
Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,
condemned the raids as a “serious escalation” and called on the United States
to intervene, according to the official Palestinian news agency.
At least 652
Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since the war in
Gaza began over 10 months ago, according to the Palestinian ministry. Most have
died during such raids, which often trigger gunbattles with militants.
Israel says the
operations are required to dismantle Hamas and other militant groups and to
prevent attacks on Israelis, which have also risen since the start of the war.
The Palestinian
Health Ministry said the bodies of seven people were brought to the hospital in
Tubas, another West Bank city, and another two were brought to the hospital in
Jenin. The ministry identified two killed in Jenin as Qassam Jabarin, 25, and
Asem Balout, 39.
Israel captured
the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The
Palestinians want all three for a future state.
Israel has built
scores of settlements across the West Bank, which are home to over 500,000
Jewish settlers. They have Israeli citizenship, while the 3 million
Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, with the
Palestinian Authority exercising limited control over population centers.
The war in Gaza
erupted on 7 October, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel and
rampaged through army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people,
mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. The militants are still holding
some 110 hostages, around a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most
of the rest were released during a November cease-fire.
Israel responded
with an offensive that has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's
Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants. Around 90% of
Gaza's population has been displaced, often multiple times, and Israeli
bombardment and ground operations have caused vast destruction.
Israeli strikes in
Gaza overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 16 people, including five
women and three children. Most of the strikes were in or near the southern city
of Khan Younis, which has come under heavy bombardment over the last two
months. Associated Press reporters at two hospitals confirmed the toll.
The U.S., Qatar
and Egypt have spent months trying to mediate a cease-fire that would see the
remaining hostages released. But the talks have repeatedly bogged down as
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed “total victory” over Hamas
and the militant group has demanded a lasting cease-fire and a full withdrawal
from the territory.
There was no sign
of a breakthrough after days of talks in Egypt, and the negotiations move to
Qatar this week.
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