2023-07-05 01:41:50
image copyrightAnadolu Agency via Getty
Article informationAuthor, David GrittenRole, BBC
3 hours ago
Israeli forces have begun to withdraw from the Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank, according to a military source in the Israeli army.
Thus ends a two-day military operation that led to the killing of 12 Palestinians.
Despite this, the sounds of explosions and gunfire continued to be heard across the camp, according to reports from there.
Palestinian medical sources said that a Palestinian civilian was shot dead, while a separate airstrike wounded 3 others.
The Israeli army launched air strikes on the Gaza Strip following it intercepted five rockets it said were fired from the Strip at settlements in southern Israel.
The Israeli authorities stated that 7 citizens were stabbed in a crowded market in Tel Aviv, and that the attacker turned out to be a Palestinian from the West Bank.
As for the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, he said, “Whoever thinks that such an attack will deter us from continuing the war once morest terrorism is mistaken.”
He stressed that the Israeli forces “are completing the mission in Jenin,” noting that it will not be “just one operation.”
The Palestinian National Authority accused Israel of launching a comprehensive invasion of its lands.
Israel launched an extensive military operation in the Jenin camp, in the early hours of last Monday morning, with an air strike with marches, which it said targeted the joint command center of the Jenin armed battalion, which was formed with the participation of a wide range of Palestinian factions, led by the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas.
After that, crowds of Israeli soldiers advanced into the camp, where the clashes with the Palestinian militants began, taking a very violent turn.
The Israeli forces said that the “anti-terror operation” focused on confiscating weapons, “and eliminating the terrorist hotbed in the camp.”
An official in the United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs said, on Tuesday, that the organization is “on alert due to the magnitude of the air and ground operations that are taking place, especially the air raids targeting the densely populated Jenin camp in the West Bank.”
She added that the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed the killing of 3 children, two at the age of 17, and the third at the age of 16 only, who were among the victims of the Israeli military operations, adding that the destruction of the infrastructure in the Jenin camp means that the majority of its residents will not be able to obtain safe drinking water. or electricity.
The World Health Organization said that Palestinian ambulances were prevented from reaching places inside the camp, and rescuing seriously injured people, stressing that the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that more than 100 wounded, including 20 who were seriously injured.
The Palestinian Red Crescent indicated that regarding 3,000 Palestinians, most of them elderly and sick, fled the camp during the night, to escape the Israeli raids and clashes.
An injured person using a wheelchair, who was leaving Jenin with his family, told the BBC on Tuesday morning that he was detained in a room by Israeli soldiers.
“We were trapped at a military checkpoint, and the soldiers stopped us, but we only got out now, and there was no one left in the camp, we were the only ones left,” he said.
“It was very difficult, as the marchers were shooting at us, but we were finally able to leave, feeling very tired, following a long period without food or drink,” he added.
Outside a hospital near the city center, Palestinian demonstrators stoned a military vehicle, and the soldiers responded by firing gas bombs.
Doctors Without Borders said that its teams were not allowed to reach the camp, and were forced to walk a long distance to get there because Israeli bulldozers cut off most of the roads leading to it.
image copyrightAnadolu Agency via Getty
Jenin became a stronghold for a new generation of Palestinian militants, who became deeply frustrated with the tendencies of the aging Palestinian Authority leadership in the West Bank on the one hand, and the crackdown of the Israeli authorities on the other.
The city witnessed multiple Israeli raids during the past year, during which the Palestinians carried out attacks that caused deaths inside Israel, and some of them managed to hide in Jenin.
The Palestinian Prime Minister, Muhammad Shtayyeh, objected to all statements made by Western officials expressing their recognition of what they described as Israel’s right to defend itself.
Shtayyeh said in a tweet on the Twitter platform, “Israel is known at the international level as an occupying power of our lands and people,” adding, “It must be condemned for using force to destroy the camp, its infrastructure, facilities, and homes, and to kill, arrest, and displace innocent civilians.”
Shtayyeh said, “The Palestinians are the ones who have the right to self-defense, and there is no such right for the occupation authorities.”
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