By MAJDI MOHAMMED and IMAD ISSEID (Associated Press)
JENIN, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli army withdrew its troops from a militant stronghold within the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, ending an intense two-day operation that killed no less than 13 Palestinians, drove 1000’s of individuals from their houses and left a large swath of harm in its wake. One Israeli soldier was additionally killed.
The military claimed to have inflicted heavy injury on militant teams within the Jenin refugee camp in an operation that included a collection of airstrikes and a whole lot of floor troops.
But it remained unclear whether or not there can be any long-lasting impact after almost a 12 months and a half of heavy combating within the West Bank.
Ahead of the withdrawal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to hold out comparable operations if wanted.
“At these moments we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off,” he mentioned throughout a go to to a army submit on the outskirts of Jenin. “We will eradicate terrorism wherever we see it and we will strike at it.”
The Jenin raid was one of the crucial intense Israeli army operations within the West Bank since an armed Palestinian rebellion towards Israel’s open-ended occupation ended twenty years in the past.
Since early 2022, Israel has been finishing up close to each day raids within the West Bank in response to a collection of lethal Palestinian assaults. It says the raids are supposed to crack down on Palestinians militants and mentioned they’re vital as a result of the Palestinian Authority is just too weak.
The Palestinians say such violence is the inevitable results of 56 years of occupation and the absence of any political course of with Israel. They additionally level to elevated West Bank settlement development and violence by extremist settlers.
Israel struck the camp, often known as a long-time bastion of Palestinian militants, early Monday in an operation it mentioned was geared toward destroying and confiscating weapons.
Big army bulldozers tore by means of alleyways, leaving heavy injury to roads and buildings, and 1000’s of residents fled the camp to hunt security with kin or in shelters. People mentioned electrical energy and water had been knocked out. The military mentioned the bulldozers had been vital as a result of roads had been booby-trapped with explosives.
The army mentioned it had confiscated 1000’s of weapons, bomb-making supplies and caches of cash. Weapons had been present in militant hideouts and civilian areas alike, in a single case beneath a mosque, the army mentioned.
The withdrawal got here hours after a Hamas militant rammed his automotive right into a crowded Tel Aviv bus cease and started stabbing folks, wounding eight, together with a pregnant girl who reportedly misplaced her child. The attacker was killed by an armed bystander. Hamas mentioned the assault was revenge for the Israeli offensive.
Early Wednesday, militants from Hamas-ruled Gaza additionally fired 5 rockets towards Israel, which Israel mentioned had been intercepted. Israeli jets struck a number of websites in Gaza.
In Jenin, combating continued till shortly earlier than the withdrawal Wednesday morning.
The Israeli army mentioned it carried out an airstrike late Tuesday focusing on a bunch of militants in a Jenin cemetery. It mentioned the gunmen threatened forces shifting out of the camp. Israeli and Palestinian officers additionally reported combating close to a hospital in Jenin late Tuesday. An Associated Press reporter on the bottom may hear explosions and the sound of gunfire.
Palestinian well being officers mentioned 13 Palestinians had been killed in the course of the Israeli raid and dozens had been wounded. The Israeli army has claimed it killed solely militants, nevertheless it has not supplied particulars.
The large-scale raid comes amid a greater than yearlong spike in violence that has created a problem for Netanyahu’s far-right authorities, which is dominated by ultranationalists who’ve known as for harder motion towards Palestinian militants solely to see the combating worsen.
Over 140 Palestinians have been killed this 12 months within the West Bank, and Palestinian assaults focusing on Israelis have killed no less than 25 folks, together with a capturing final month that killed 4 settlers.
The sustained operation has raised warnings from humanitarian teams of a deteriorating scenario.
Doctors Without Borders accused the military of firing tear gasoline right into a hospital, filling the emergency room with smoke and forcing emergency sufferers to be handled in a essential corridor.
The U.N.’s human rights chief mentioned the size of the operation “raises a host of serious issues with respect to international human rights norms and standards, including protecting and respecting the right to life.”
Kefah Ja’ayyasah, a camp resident, mentioned troopers forcibly entered her residence and locked the household inside.
“They took the young men of my family to the upper floor, and they left the women and children trapped in the apartment at the first floor,” she mentioned.
She claimed troopers wouldn’t let her take meals to the youngsters and blocked an ambulance crew from getting into the house when she yelled for assist, earlier than finally permitting the household passage to a hospital.
Across the West Bank, Palestinians noticed a normal strike to protest the Israeli raid.
With airstrikes and a big presence of floor troops, the raid bore hallmarks of Israeli army techniques in the course of the second Palestinian rebellion within the early 2000s. But there are additionally variations, together with its restricted scope.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip within the 1967 Mideast conflict. The Palestinians search these territories for his or her hoped-for impartial state.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”