By Reuters: Israeli forces hit town of Jenin with drone strikes on Monday in one of many largest West Bank operations in 20 years, killing at the least eight Palestinians and involving a whole lot of troops in sporadic gun battles that continued into the night.
Gunfire and explosions had been heard all through the day as clashes continued between Israeli troops and fighters from the Jenin Brigades, a unit made up of militant teams primarily based within the metropolis’s crowded refugee camp.
“What is going on in the refugee camp is real war,” stated Palestinian ambulance driver Khaled Alahmad. “There were strikes from the sky targeting the camp, every time we drive in, around five to seven ambulances and we come back full of injured.”
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At instances throughout the morning, at the least six drones might be seen circling over town and the adjoining camp, a densely packed space housing round 14,000 refugees in lower than half a sq. kilometre.
The camp has been on the coronary heart of an escalation of violence throughout the West Bank that has triggered mounting alarm from Washington to the Arab world, with out to date opening the way in which to a resumption of political negotiations which were stalled for nearly a decade.
For greater than a yr, military raids in cities comparable to Jenin have change into routine, whereas there have been a collection of lethal assaults by Palestinians towards Israelis and rampages by Jewish settler mobs towards Palestinian villages.
The Palestinian well being ministry confirmed at the least eight individuals had been killed and greater than 50 wounded in Jenin, whereas one other man was killed in Ramallah in a single day, shot within the head at a checkpoint.
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The Israeli army stated its forces struck a constructing that served as a command centre for fighters from the Jenin Brigades with what it referred to as “precise” drone strikes utilizing small payloads. It described the operation as an intensive counter-terrorism effort aimed toward destroying infrastructure and disrupting militants from utilizing the refugee camp as a base.
As the operation proceeded, Israeli armoured bulldozers ploughed up roads within the camp to dig up hid improvised explosive gadgets, reducing water and electrical energy provides, the Jenin municipality stated as residents described troopers breaking by way of the partitions to cross from home to accommodate.
“Nothing is safe in the camp. They dug up the roads with bulldozers. Why? What did the camp do?” stated Hussein Zeidan, 67, as he recovered from his wounds in hospital.
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An Israeli army spokesman stated the operation would final so long as wanted and instructed forces might stay for an prolonged interval. “It could take hours, but it could also take days. We are focused on our goals,” he stated.
Until June 21, when it carried out a strike close to Jenin, the Israeli army had not used drone strikes within the West Bank since 2006. But the rising scale of the violence and the stress on floor forces meant such ways might proceed, a army spokesman stated.
“We’re really stretched,” a spokesman instructed journalists. “It’s because of the scale. And again, from our perception, this will minimize friction,” he stated, including that the strikes had been primarily based on “precise intelligence”.
‘HORNETS NEST’
Monday’s operation, involving a drive described as “brigade-size” – suggesting round 1,000-2,000 troops – was supposed to assist “break the safe haven mindset of the camp, which has become a hornets nest,” the spokesman stated.
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Its obvious scale underlined the significance of the Jenin camp in violence that has additional uncovered the impotence of the Palestinian Authority to impose its writ over cities within the West Bank, the place it holds nominal governance powers.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated he was suspending contacts with Israel and referred to as for “international protection for our people”. UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland stated he was speaking with all events to de-escalate and guarantee humanitarian entry.
Hundreds of fighters from militant teams together with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah are primarily based within the camp, which was arrange 70 years in the past to accommodate refugees within the aftermath of the 1948 Palestine battle. The fighters have an array of weapons and a rising arsenal of explosive gadgets.
The Israeli army, which repeatedly accuses militant teams of basing fighters in civilian areas, stated troops seized an improvised rocket launcher and hit a weapons manufacturing and explosives storage facility with a whole lot of gadgets prepared for use in addition to radios and different gear.
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It stated it had additionally discovered weapons in a mosque the place fighters had barricaded themselves inside in an underground part.
It was unclear whether or not the incursion would set off a wider response from Palestinian factions, drawing in militant teams within the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave managed by militant Islamist group Hamas.
Saleh Al-Arouri, accused by Israel of main the Hamas army wing within the West Bank, instructed Aqsa TV that fighters in Jenin ought to attempt to seize Israeli troopers.
“Our fighters will rise from everywhere, and you will never know where the new fighter will come from,” he stated.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant stated his forces had been “closely monitoring the conduct of our enemies,” with the defence institution “ready for all scenarios.”
Following the final main raid in Jenin in June, Palestinian gunmen killed 4 Israelis close to a Jewish settlement within the West Bank. That led to a rampage by mobs of settlers in Palestinian villages and cities.
Israel captured the West Bank, which the Palestinians see because the core of a future impartial state, within the 1967 Middle East battle. Following a long time of battle, peace talks that had been brokered by the United States have been frozen since 2014.
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