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 hundreds of individuals from their properties and left a large swath of harm in its wake. One Israeli soldier was additionally killed.
The military claimed to have inflicted heavy harm on militant teams within the Jenin refugee camp in an operation that included a collection of airstrikes and lots of of floor troops.
But it remained unclear whether or not there can be any long-lasting impact after practically a 12 months and a half of heavy preventing within the West Bank.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows beneath.
JENIN, West Bank (AP) —
The Israeli army started withdrawing troops from a militant stronghold within the occupied West Bank late Tuesday, safety officers mentioned, winding down an intense two-day operation that killed no less than 13 Palestinians, drove hundreds from their properties and left a large swath of harm in its wake. One Israeli soldier was killed.
But sporadic preventing between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants continued in elements of the Jenin refugee camp, delaying the pullout. The military mentioned a soldier was killed in preventing late Tuesday, however however gave no additional particulars.
Just after midnight, residents within the Jenin refugee camp mentioned the military had left the world, and folks started returning to the streets. There was no speedy affirmation from the army.
Adding to the tensions, the military mentioned militants within the Gaza Strip launched 5 rockets into Israel. It mentioned the entire rockets had been intercepted, however the launches raised the danger of preventing 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 automotive right into a crowded Tel Aviv bus cease and commenced stabbing individuals, 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.
Earlier Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated the West Bank operation, some of the 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 mentioned.
As the pullout was getting underway, the Israeli army mentioned it carried out an airstrike concentrating on a militant cell positioned in a cemetery. It mentioned the gunmen threatened forces shifting out of the camp. There was no speedy phrase on casualties.
Israeli and Palestinian officers additionally reported preventing 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 advised the official Wafa information company that three civilians had been hit by Israeli fireplace.
Israel struck the camp, often called a bastion of Palestinian militants, early Monday in an operation it mentioned was geared toward destroying and confiscating weapons. Palestinian well being officers mentioned 13 Palestinians had been killed and dozens wounded.
Big army bulldozers tore by way of alleyways, leaving heavy harm to roads and buildings, and hundreds of residents fled the camp. People mentioned electrical energy and water had been knocked out. The military says the bulldozers had been vital as a result of roads had been booby-trapped with explosives.
The army mentioned it had confiscated hundreds 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 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 referred to as for harder motion in opposition to Palestinian militants solely to see the preventing worsen.
Over 140 Palestinians have been killed this 12 months within the West Bank, and Palestinian assaults concentrating on Israelis have killed no less than 25 individuals, together with a taking pictures 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 fuel right into a hospital, filling the emergency room with smoke and forcing emergency sufferers to be handled in a principal corridor.
The U.N.’s human rights chief mentioned the dimensions 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 throughout 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 mentioned. He praised the one who killed the attacker and referred to as for arming extra residents, as he was heckled by an indignant 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 referred to 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 mentioned round 4,000 Palestinians, practically one third of the camp, had fled to stick with family members or in shelters.
Kefah Ja’ayyasah, a camp resident, mentioned troopers forcibly entered her house 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 kids 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 mentioned Tuesday that the two-day loss of life toll amongst Palestinians rose to 13. The Israeli army has claimed it killed solely militants, but it surely has not supplied 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 each day raids within the West Bank in response to a collection of lethal Palestinian assaults in early 2022. 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 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 warfare. The Palestinians search these territories for his or her hoped-for impartial state.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”