At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in a major operation by Israeli forces in the north of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says.
Local journalists said they had not seen anything of this scope and scale in the West Bank since the days of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, two decades ago.
Israeli media reported that hundreds of Israeli forces were active in four different cities at least in the north of the West Bank – Jenin, Tulkarm, Tubas and Nablus.
The Palestinian Red Crescent also reported that at least nine people had been killed across the West Bank, revising down its death toll to 10.
Hamas later put out a statement mourning six men who it said were fighters killed by Israeli forces in Jenin on Wednesday.
Hamas – which is a bitter rival of Mr Abbas’s Fatah movement – condemned the Israeli operation, calling it part of the “brutal genocidal war in Gaza”.
The UN said 622 Palestinians – members of armed groups, attackers and civilians – had been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between 7 October and Monday.
At least 602 were killed by Israeli forces, including 126 in air strikes, and 11 by Israeli settlers, it added.
Fifteen Israelis, including nine members of Israeli forces and five settlers, were killed by Palestinians in the West Bank during the same period, while 10 Israelis were killed in Israel in attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank.
Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war.
A major operation by Israeli forces in the northern part of the occupied West Bank has resulted in the deaths of at least ten Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
“A counterterrorism operation” was launched overnight in Jenin and Tulkarm, according to Israeli security forces, who also claimed to have killed “five armed terrorists from the air and ground.”.
During a simultaneous operation in the al-Faraa refugee camp near Tubas, it was also reported that four more people were killed in an air strike. West of Jenin, there was another death reported.
The second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, occurred two decades ago, and local journalists claimed they had not seen anything in the West Bank comparable in size and scope.
According to Israeli media, hundreds of Israeli soldiers were engaged in activity in Jenin, Tulkarm, Tubas, and Nablus, four cities located at least in the northern region of the West Bank.
The bodies of seven people were transferred to the Tubas governmental hospital, and two more people arrived at the Jenin governmental hospital, according to a statement released by the Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank on Wednesday morning.
Additionally, the Palestinian Red Crescent updated its death toll to ten by reporting that at least nine people had perished throughout the West Bank. According to the report, they included three people who perished in a drone strike in the village of Misilya, which is close to Jenin, and four more people who perished in a drone strike in the al-Faraa refugee camp, which is close to Tubas.
Since the Jenin governor had earlier declared that at least 11 people had died, the actual number may be higher.
Troops erected checkpoints and barred all but one of the city’s entrances in Jenin, a frequent flashpoint.
Israeli forces, according to the health ministry, have encircled the headquarters of the Friends of the Patients organization and the Palestinian Red Crescent, as well as the nearby Ibn Sina hospital and Jenin government hospital.
They were threatening to storm the hospitals, threatening not only the lives of the medical staff but also the lives of several patients.
The BBC was told by a local journalist inside the government hospital that “at this moment, there are patients that are leaving the hospital but after the IDF check their IDs.”. “The circumstances are frightening. “.
Additionally, the health ministry charged them with violating international law by preventing ambulances from doing their jobs.
The armed groups’ base, Jenin Refugee Camp, has been the site of numerous intense gunfights in the past, and the troops have also been searching it.
There was currently no sign of armed fighters engaging Israeli forces, but a camp resident told the BBC that he could hear explosions nearby and the buzzing of drones overhead.
The camp’s main street was completely demolished by Israeli armoured bulldozers, he claimed, and the entrance was blocked by piles of rubble.
“Three armed terrorists who posed a threat to the security forces were eliminated in the area of Jenin through an aerial strike,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the domestic security organization Shin Bet, and the Israel Border Police said in a joint statement.
Furthermore, the forces located and seized weapons, including M-16s, ammunition, and additional military equipment in the areas of Jenin and Tulkarm. They also killed two more armed terrorists. “.
In an attempt to attack them, they claimed that forces had found and demolished explosives hidden beneath nearby roads.
Later, Hamas released a statement lamenting the deaths of six men it claimed were fighters on Wednesday in Jenin, Israel, by Israeli forces.
Four armed terrorists who posed a threat to the forces were struck and eliminated by an aircraft during a simultaneous operation in the al-Faraa refugee camp, near Tubas, they added, while the ground forces seized weapons.
As he was giving water to some men who had asked for a drink close to his house, Masoud Naaja claimed that two of his adult sons were slain in the strike.
He said to the Reuters news agency, “We felt like something came down on us from the sky and there was an explosion,” all in a matter of seconds. “There was blood and shrapnel all over my chest when I touched it. “.”.
He said, “I went inside and saw that the entire house was damaged.”. “When my wife inquired about what had happened, I told her and asked her to go check on our kids on the rooftop. She discovered three of our kids; one was hurt, and the other two, may they rest in peace. “.
Israeli forces are “bringing more and more military vehicles and bulldozers” into the al-Faraa refugee camp, a woman in Tubas told the BBC.
She said, “We are all on edge and waiting to see if there will be any escalation.”.
The forces were pursuing “a mixture of terror groups and terror cells,” according to IDF spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, who declined to provide an estimated duration or number of troops involved in the operation.
The military was using “full force” in Jenin and Tulkarm, according to a forceful statement released by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, with the goal of “dismantling Iranian-Islamic terror infrastructures established there.”.
The Iranian government, he claimed, was funding and smuggling cutting-edge weapons from Jordan in an attempt to “establish an eastern terror front,” as it supports both Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
According to Mr. Katz, the threat needs to be handled with the same seriousness as the one posed by Gaza. includes the “temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents,” which is something we have never heard from an official source before.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman issued a dire warning, saying that the Gaza war and the increasing Israeli raids in the West Bank would “lead to dire and dangerous results for which everyone will pay the price.”.
In order to “curb this extremist [Israeli] government that poses a threat to the stability of the region and the entire world,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh demanded immediate international action.
Fatah, the movement led by Mr. Abbas’s fierce rival Hamas, denounced the Israeli operation and referred to it as a “brutal genocidal war in Gaza.”.
The UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman added that the use of airstrikes and other military weapons and tactics by Israeli security forces “violates human rights norms and standards applicable to law enforcement operations” and that the operation “risks seriously deepening the already catastrophic situation.”.
In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 622 Palestinians—including members of armed groups, attackers, and civilians—were reportedly killed between October 7 and Monday, according to the UN. Eleven Israeli settlers and 126 Israeli airstrikes resulted in at least 602 Israeli deaths, according to the report.
During the same period, Palestinians in the West Bank killed fifteen Israelis, including five settlers and nine members of Israeli forces. In addition, Palestinians in Israel killed ten Israelis in attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank.
Over 700,000 Jews have been housed in approximately 160 settlements that Israel constructed during its occupation of the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East conflict. Israel contests the fact that the settlements are illegal under international law.
