2023-09-20 06:58:02
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Six Palestinians were killed in Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank and clashes in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health officials said Wednesday, a new spike in the region’s long-running wave of violence. more than a year.
The death toll in the latest outbreak was four on Tuesday. But the Palestinian Health Ministry raised it on Wednesday, saying four people had been killed and about 30 wounded in the Jenin refugee camp, while a raid on another refugee camp left one Palestinian dead. A sixth Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in clashes in the Gaza Strip, according to officials.
Deadly violence between Israel and the Palestinians over the past year and a half has spiked to levels not seen in the West Bank in about two decades. Israel has stepped up its raids in Palestinian areas, and Palestinian attacks against Israelis have been increasing. Tension also seemed to grow in Gaza.
The Israeli military did not initially comment on the raid on the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp, near the Palestinian city of Jericho, which has become one of the hotbeds of Israeli incursions. Israeli forces killed 19-year-old Dhargham al-Akhras in the operation, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Hours earlier, violence had begun in Jenin, a Palestinian militant stronghold where the Israeli army often carries out deadly raids. Israel carried out its most intense operation in the West Bank in almost two decades there in July, leaving widespread destruction in the countryside.
The army said its forces had made an unusual attack on Tuesday with a suicide drone during the operation and exchanged fire with gunmen in Jenin. As they were leaving the field, the army said, an explosive device detonated under a military truck as gunmen opened fire, damaging the vehicle. No soldiers were injured.
Videos posted on social media showed doctors unloading the injured at a hospital. Others showed explosions and the sound of gunshots in the countryside. As the Israeli soldiers retreated, a group of young people chanted “oh, who are we, who, you ask? We are the Jenin Brigade.”
After the Israeli withdrawal from the Jenin camp, dozens of armed men and residents took to the streets to protest against the Palestinian Authority and its failure to protect them, according to images shared by residents.
Israel said the raids were intended to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks.
About 190 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank so far this year, according to a count by The Associated Press. Israel says the majority were militiamen, although young people protesting against the raids and others who were not participating in the fighting have also died.
At least 31 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis since the beginning of 2023.
In Gaza, health officials said the Israeli army had killed a 25-year-old Palestinian along the unstable border with Israel during violent youth protests at a separation fence.
The violence has increased tensions in the past week and prompted Israel to ban thousands of Palestinian workers from the impoverished enclave.
Over the past week, dozens of Palestinians have turned out to burn tires and throw explosive devices at the fence separating Israel from Gaza, a territory that has been under blockade by Israel and Egypt since 2007. Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent rearm the armed group Hamas, which rules Gaza.
Hamas says youth have organized the protests in response to Israeli provocations.
Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians claim those territories for a future independent state.
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