Israel launched its heaviest air strikes on the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades on Monday, saying it was trying to root out armed militants in the city of Jenin after a year of violence. escalate there. At least eight Palestinians were killed.
The Israeli military said the operation began shortly after 1 a.m. with aerial drone strikes on what it called “terrorist infrastructure” in Israel. the jenin areafollowed by hundreds of ground forces. Military officials said the operation focused on militant targets in the densely populated Jenin refugee camp, an area less than a quarter square mile adjacent to the city, with about 17,000 residents.
Israel estimates that there are hundreds of armed Palestinian militants in the Jenin area, which has recently been the focus of attacks against Israelis and deadly capture raids by the Israeli Army.
Long a symbol of the Palestinian military and a haven for armed groups fighting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Jenin is a stronghold for Iran-backed Islamic Jihad and Hamas, the militant group Muslim troops control the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Israeli military officials say more than 50 gun attacks have been carried out from the Jenin area against Israeli targets in the past six months.
The army’s arrest raids led to increasingly fierce gunfights between troops and militants, leading up to Monday’s attack.
“The camp is a war zone in the truest sense of the word,” Muhammad Sbaghi, a member of the local committee that helps manage the Jenin camp, said after the operation began on Monday. He added that the people had feared a large-scale attack by the Israeli army but did not expect something so violent and destructive.
“The occupying army is targeting us with hatred,” he said. “People are extremely scared,” he added, saying residents have been hiding in their homes throughout the Jenin refugee camp.
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said the goal of the Israeli operation was to “disrupt the safe-haven mentality” of the refugee camp. According to the military, at least 19 people suspected of attacking Israelis have sought shelter there in recent months.
Colonel Hecht said the strikes were aimed at “minimizing friction” on the ground and the risk to the Israeli military, adding that the attack would continue “for as long as necessary”. He said ground forces inside the camp had seized weapons.
Israeli media reports estimate that around 1,000 infantry were present in Jenin as part of the operation.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that at least eight Palestinians were killed in Jenin and about 50 were injured, 10 of them seriously. Israel said it killed at least seven people it identified as armed suspects.
The military described Jenin city and camp on Monday as an “active combat zone” and said fighting continued there.
The military said rockets fired from Israeli drones hit a joint operations center used by fighters of the Jenin Brigade in the refugee camp. Israeli forces also targeted a weapons manufacturing facility and explosives depot, and located and seized a homemade rocket launcher, the military said.
A map released by the military shows that the center of activity in the camp is near several buildings run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides services to Palestinian refugees.
Residents of the north West Coast have recently seen an explosive mixture of violence. There are attacks on Israelis by armed Palestinian militias; almost daily capture raids by the Israeli army; And revenge of the radical Jewish settlerswho raged through Palestinian villages, burning property.
This year has been one of the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank in more than a decade, with more than 140 deaths in the past six months. Most were killed in armed clashes during military attacks, although some were bystanders. It was also one of the deadliest years for Israelis in a while, with nearly 30 people killed in Arab attacks.
Increasingly, as in other areas of the north West Coast, armed militias such as the Jenin Brigade have sprung up in Jenin. Made up of members of established groups as well as non-aligned gunmen, they operate independently of the main organizational structures.
The last time Israel carried out such large-scale airstrikes in the West Bank was during the second Palestinian intifada in the early 2000s.
Israeli officials said early Monday that they were in contact with representatives of the Palestinian Authority, the interim body set up under the Oslo peace process in the mid-1990s to exercise limited autonomy. in areas of the West Coast. They have also been in contact with authorities in neighboring Jordan.
The Palestinian president’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, denounced the Israeli attack on Jenin as “a new war crime against our defenseless people”, according to Wafa, The official Palestinian news agency.
“Our Palestinian people will not kneel, will not surrender, will not raise the white flag and will stand firm on their land in the face of this brutal act of aggression,” he said.
Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Herzog, has described Jenin for the past two years as “a major terrorist center and a stronghold for Iran”, apparently alluding to reports by Israeli officials about militant groups. Iranian-backed Palestinian militias such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas. weapons area. He said many of the attacks on Israelis originated in Jenin.
“No country sits idly by when terrorists attack its citizens,” said Herzog . wrote on Twitter after starting operation.
A week ago, a rocket was launched towards an Israeli community from the Jenin area but exploded shortly after it took off, according to military footage and video. While militant groups in the Palestinian coastal territory of Gaza have launched rockets at Israel for more than 20 years, groups in the West Bank have yet to develop similar capabilities.
ONE Israeli military operations in Jenin on June 19 turned deadly, with at least five Palestinians killed in a gunfight and dozens more injured, according to Palestinian health officials. One of the dead was a 15-year-old girl.
According to the Israeli military, eight members of the Israeli security forces were also wounded in the fighting that day, which broke out after a raid to arrest two Palestinians on suspicion of terrorist activities.
For the first time in decades, Israeli armed helicopters have been sent to the area to assist forces trying to rescue armored vehicles that were disabled by a roadside bomb. . Israeli analysts say the roadside bomb is reminiscent of the kind that Israeli forces encountered decades ago in southern Lebanon.
Western-backed security forces belonging to the Palestinian Authority have largely stayed out of military hotspots in the northern West Bank at the end of the year. Analysts say their absence shows that they have lose control and leave a power vacuum.
Members of the coalition government in Israel led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – the most right-wing in the country’s history – have urged a stronger military response to the attacks on the Israelis.
But Monday’s activism appeared to have widespread support, as the opposition leader, centrist Yair Lapid, voiced support for it.
“This is a logical step against terrorist infrastructure based on high quality and accurate intelligence,” he said. wrote on Twitter.
Raja Abdulrahim, Gabby Sobelman And Myra Noveck contribution report.
