Smoke rises during an Israeli military raid of the militant stronghold of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, July 3, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
JENIN, West Bank – Israel is close to completing its Jenin operation, a senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday after the fiercest fighting in the flashpoint West Bank town in more than two decades killed 10 Palestinians and forced thousands to flee.
Launched early on Monday, the raid involving hundreds of commandos backed by drones prompted the internationally backed Palestinian administration to suspend contacts with Israel and stirred US and UN concern for humanitarian conditions.
A Palestinian wounded during the clashes died overnight and another body was found in the morning, bringing the death toll to 10, with around 100 wounded, 20 of them critically, the Palestinian health ministry said
Israel says the operation in Jenin's tenement-like refugee camp, codenamed "Home and Garden", aims to uproot Iranian-backed Palestinian armed factions behind a recent surge in gun and bomb attacks as well as preliminary efforts to manufacture rockets.
A Palestinian wounded during the clashes died overnight and another body was found in the morning, bringing the death toll to 10, with around 100 wounded, 20 of them critically, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The Islamic Jihad faction claimed four of the dead as its fighters. Hamas, another Islamist faction, claimed a fifth. It was not immediately clear if the other five fatalities – males aged 17 to 23 – were combatants or civilians.
The operation "is close to completing the achievement of the goals set," Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanebi told Kan radio after a relative lull in the clashes overnight.
The Israeli military said it had confirmation of nine Palestinians killed by its forces. All were combatants, it said.
Offices and businesses across the occupied West Bank were expected to close on Tuesday in response to calls for a general strike to protest the operation, which the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas has described as a "war crime".
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had evacuated 500 families, or around 3,000 people, from the camp, where some 14,000 people live in less than half a square kilometer and which has been one of the focal points of a wave of violence that has swept the occupied West Bank for more than a year.
Aid groups called on Israel to guarantee humanitarian access. The United States said on Monday it respected Israel's right to defend itself but said civilian casualties should be avoided. The United Nations said all military operations should respect international law.
Hundreds of fighters from Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah live in the camp which has been fortified with a range of obstacles and watching posts to counter regular army raids.
On Monday, Israeli bulldozers ploughed through streets in the camp to destroy improvised explosive devices, cutting water and electricity supplies, though Israeli officials said they would work to restore services.
On Tuesday, the military said border police had found an underground shaft used to store explosives in the refugee camp and had dismantled two observation posts.
The Israeli military said its forces struck a building that served as a command center for fighters from the Jenin Brigades with what it called "precise" drone strikes using small payloads
"What is going on in the refugee camp is real war," said 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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For more than a year, army raids in cities such as Jenin have become routine, while there have been a series of deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israelis and rampages by Jewish settler mobs against Palestinian villages.
The Israeli military said its forces struck a building that served as a command center for fighters from the Jenin Brigades with what it called "precise" drone strikes using small payloads. It described the operation as an extensive counter-terrorism effort aimed at destroying infrastructure and disrupting militants from using the refugee camp as a base.
"Nothing is safe in the camp. They dug up the roads with bulldozers. Why? What did the camp do?" said Hussein Zeidan, 67, as he recovered from his wounds in hospital.
An injured Palestinian is carried into a hospital during an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp, a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank, July 3, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
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Until June 21, when it carried out a strike near Jenin, the Israeli military had not used drone strikes in the West Bank since 2006. But the growing scale of the violence and the pressure on ground forces meant such tactics may continue, a military spokesman said.
"We're really stretched," a spokesman told journalists. "It's because of the scale. And again, from our perception, this will minimize friction," he said, adding that the strikes were based on "precise intelligence".
International criticism
Monday's operation, involving a force described as "brigade-size" – suggesting around 1,000-2,000 troops – was intended to help "break the safe haven mindset of the camp, which has become a hornets nest," the spokesman said.
Its apparent scale underlined the importance of the Jenin camp in violence that has further exposed the impotence of the Palestinian Authority to impose its writ over towns in the West Bank, where it holds nominal governance powers.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was suspending contacts with Israel and called for "international protection for our people". UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland said he was talking with all parties to de-escalate and ensure humanitarian access.
Wennesland tweeted that the current escalation in the occupied West Bank "is very dangerous" following months of mounting tensions.
The operation "once again reminds us of the extremely volatile and unpredictable situation across the occupied West Bank," he tweeted, urging that all must ensure the civilian population is protected.
UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Palestine Lynn Hastings expressed "alarm" in a tweet and stressed that "access to all injured must be ensured."
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit on Monday condemned the Israeli military raid on Jenin and called on peace advocates across the world to intervene immediately and stop the Israeli "ominous and criminal" operation.
"The ongoing brutal Israeli military operation in Jenin is categorically slammed," Aboul-Gheit tweeted, noting that raiding cities and camps under air support as well as razing houses and roads are collective punishment and revenge that will only lead to further escalation of tension.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates on Monday also expressed strong condemnation against the Israeli forces.
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In a statement, it called for an immediate halt to repeated and escalating campaigns against the Palestinian people, urging Israeli authorities to reduce escalation and avoid steps that "exacerbate tension and violence in the occupied Palestinian territories and lead to a deterioration of the situation and perpetuation of the cycle of violence."
Palestinian protesters hold flags during a protest against the killing of Palestinians near the fence of the Gaza-Israel border, east of Gaza City, on July 3, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry condemned on Monday "in the strongest terms" the Israeli raid, voicing opposition to the repeated Israeli raids and incursions into Palestinian cities that killed civilians.
Describing the Israeli attacks as a "flagrant violation of international laws and legitimacy", the ministry warned against the serious impacts of the ongoing escalation which it said would exacerbate the Palestinians' sufferings and undermine Egyptian, regional, and international efforts to de-escalate tensions in the occupied territories.
Jordan on Monday warned of the catastrophic consequences of the Israeli raid on Jenin, calling for the international community's intervention to stop Israel's military operations.
Türkiye also strongly condemned the Israeli military operation, urging Israel to act with common sense and stop such actions.
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants on Monday condemned the Israeli aggression, which it said "targets the entire population without distinction between civilians and combatants or between young people, children and the elderly."
The ministry called on the international community to pressure the "aggressor" to stop assaults and protect defenseless civilians.