Israel bombs Jenin, killing eight Palestinians in large-scale operation

The Israeli Army continues to attack the West Bank city of Jenin, in a large-scale military operation by land and air against Palestinian militias, the largest since the Second Intifada (2000-05), which has already left eight Palestinians dead and fifty of wounded.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that the dead in Jenin rose to eight since the raid began this morning, which has left some fifty injured, ten of them in serious condition. At least five were militants, according to local sources. In addition, a young Palestinian was killed today by Israeli fire in Al Bireh, near Ramallah, bringing the death toll on this day to nine.

"Exchanges of fire with armed men are currently taking place adjacent to a mosque in the Jenin camp. An air force plane attacked nearby to eliminate a threat," the Israeli army said in its latest report past noon.

In the operation - which has included more than ten rounds of air strikes for the first time since the Second Intifada - more than 1,000 soldiers are participating, including combat troops and also intelligence bodies, some of which are acting covertly.

The offensive continues in an area that brings together Palestinian militias from all factions

As confirmed by a military spokesman to EFE, the Army also arrested some 20 Palestinians as part of its raids, centered on the Jenin refugee camp, where they also confiscated weapons and destroyed explosives stores. In turn, an Israeli soldier was slightly injured by shrapnel after the explosion of an Army grenade.

In the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups that have gained strength in the past year, Israeli troops today attacked an operations center that served as the joint operational command center for the Jenin Brigade, a local militia comprising militiamen from various factions.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) condemned the military operation on Jenin as "a war crime" and a "brutal aggression", and urged the international community to take action against Israel.

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has called an emergency meeting with the "Palestinian leadership" for this afternoon, while the Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hussein al-Sheikh, spoke with the Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, to discuss the "continued Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people."

The ANP calls the military operation a "war crime"

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, after escalating tension with the operation on Jenin, there were clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in other places in the occupied West Bank, such as at the access to the town of al Bireh, where a 21-year-old Palestinian he was shot dead by Israeli forces.

The large-scale operation comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night assembled his security cabinet - including Gallant; the chief of the General Staff, Hezi Halevi or that of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar- to discuss the situation in the West Bank.

The West Bank experiences its highest peak of violence since the Second Intifada

In an incursion two weeks ago in Jenin - which lasted 9 hours and left 7 Palestinians dead - the Army used combat helicopters for the first time since the Second Intifada; and three days later it launched the first drone air strike on that territory since 2006, precisely for the "selective assassination" of three militiamen from the Jenin Brigade who were in a car.

Between the two episodes, two Hamas members carried out an attack on the settlement of Eli, in the north of the occupied West Bank, in which four settlers were killed, which followed days of settler attacks on Palestinian villages that left extensive damage and one death; further raising the tension in the area and the voices in favor of a large-scale military operation, especially on the extreme right.

The West Bank is experiencing its highest peak of violence since the Second Intifada and during 2023, 151 Palestinians have died in the framework of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, most of them militants in armed clashes with Israeli troops, but also civilians, including 23 minors.

In parallel, the area has seen the proliferation of new Palestinian armed groups, which carry out more and more attacks and have left 25 dead on the Israeli side, most of them settlers and five of them minors.