By MAJDI MOHAMMED and IMAD ISSEID (Associated Press)
JENIN, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli army started withdrawing troops from a militant stronghold within the occupied West Bank late Tuesday, safety officers stated, winding down an intense two-day operation that killed a minimum of 13 Palestinians, drove 1000’s from their houses and left a large swath of harm in its wake. One Israeli soldier was killed.
But sporadic combating between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants continued in elements of the Jenin refugee camp, delaying the pullout. The military stated a soldier was killed in combating late Tuesday, however however gave no additional particulars.
Just after midnight, residents within the Jenin refugee camp stated the military had left the world, and folks started returning to the streets. There was no instant affirmation from the army.
Adding to the tensions, the military stated militants within the Gaza Strip launched 5 rockets into Israel. It stated all the rockets have been intercepted, however the launches raised the danger of combating on a second entrance. Israel usually responds to rocket fireplace with airstrikes on targets in Gaza.
The developments got here hours after a Hamas militant rammed his automobile 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 stated the assault was revenge for the Israeli offensive.
Earlier Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated the West Bank operation, one of the vital intense within the territory in practically twenty years, was nearing its finish. But he vowed to hold out comparable offensives sooner or later.
“At these moments we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off,” he stated.
As the pullout was getting underway, the Israeli army stated it carried out an airstrike concentrating on a militant cell situated in a cemetery. It stated the gunmen threatened forces transferring out of the camp. There was no instant phrase on casualties.
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 hospital officers informed the official Wafa information company that three civilians have been hit by Israeli fireplace.
Israel struck the camp, referred to as a bastion of Palestinian militants, early Monday in an operation it stated was aimed toward destroying and confiscating weapons. Palestinian well being officers stated 13 Palestinians had been killed and dozens wounded.
Big army bulldozers tore by means of alleyways, leaving heavy injury to roads and buildings, and 1000’s of residents fled the camp. People stated electrical energy and water have been knocked out. The military says the bulldozers have been vital as a result of roads have been booby-trapped with explosives.
The army stated it had confiscated 1000’s of weapons, bomb-making supplies and caches of cash. Weapons have been present in militant hideouts and civilian areas alike, in a single case beneath a mosque, the army stated.
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 concentrating on Israelis have killed a minimum of 25 folks, together with a capturing final month that killed 4 settlers.
The sustained operation has raised warnings from humanitarian teams of a deteriorating state of affairs.
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 fundamental corridor.
The U.N.’s human rights chief stated 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.”
With airstrikes and a big presence of floor troops, the raid bore hallmarks of Israeli army ways through the second Palestinian rebellion within the early 2000s. But there are additionally variations, together with its restricted scope.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hard-line settler chief, rushed to the scene of Tuesday’s assault in Tel Aviv.
“We knew that terror would raise its head,” Ben-Gvir stated. He praised the one that killed the attacker and known as for arming extra residents, as he was heckled by an offended onlooker.
The attacker was recognized as a 20-year-old Palestinian man from the southern West Bank metropolis of Hebron.
The Islamic militant group Hamas praised him as a “martyr fighter” and known as the ramming “heroic and revenge for the military operation in Jenin.” Islamic Jihad, a militant group with a big presence in Jenin, additionally praised the assault.
In Jenin, rubble littered the streets, and columns of black smoke periodically rose above the skyline over the camp, which has been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence for years.
Jenin Mayor Nidal Al-Obeidi stated round 4,000 Palestinians, practically one third of the camp, had fled to stick with kinfolk or in shelters.
Kefah Ja’ayyasah, a camp resident, stated troopers forcibly entered her dwelling 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 stated.
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 common strike to protest the Israeli raid.
The Palestinian Health Ministry stated Tuesday that the two-day demise toll amongst Palestinians rose to 13. The Israeli army has claimed it killed solely militants, however it has not offered particulars.
The Palestinian self-rule authorities within the West Bank and three Arab international locations with normalized ties with Israel — Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates — have condemned Israel’s incursion, as did Saudi Arabia and the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Israel has been finishing up close to every day raids within the West Bank in response to a sequence of lethal Palestinian assaults in early 2022. It says the raids are supposed to crack down on Palestinians militants and stated they’re vital as a result of the Palestinian Authority is simply 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 says most of these killed have been militants, however stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and folks uninvolved in confrontations have additionally died.
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”