Israel’s army yesterday declared the end of a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank that killed 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier over the previous two days.
The raid, involving hundreds of forces, drone strikes and armored bulldozers, targeted the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a center for multiple armed Palestinian groups.
Amid the days of violence there, a Palestinian attacker in Tel Aviv on Tuesday wounded seven Israelis, two seriously, in a vehicle ramming and stabbing attack before he was shot dead by an armed civilian.
Photo: Reuters
Israel carried out airstrikes overnight on targets inside the blockaded Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian coastal enclave, with no deaths reported.
As the army pulled out of Jenin from late on Tuesday, much of the crowded city was left charred and in rubble from the fighting which displaced at least 3,000 residents.
Its adjacent refugee camp, a tiny and crowded urban area home to 18,000 people, has long been a stronghold of militant groups, including Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
“The operation is officially over and the soldiers have left the Jenin area,” an army spokesman said yesterday after columns of armored vehicles were seen pulling out.
Jenin residents inspected the widespread destruction in the camp, where gaping holes were torn into buildings, vehicles were crushed, and the ground was littered with bullet casings and broken glass.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labeled Jenin and its refugee camp a “terrorist nest.”
The army said it had seized arms and explosives depots, and militant logistic sites.
The Palestinians called the army’s actions there an act of “open war against the people of Jenin.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967 and built many settlements in the area.
Excluding east Jerusalem, the territory is now home to about 490,000 Israelis living in settlements.
The Palestinians want Israel to withdraw from all land seized in 1967 and to dismantle all Jewish settlements.
However, Netanyahu has pledged to “strengthen settlements.”
The Israeli army, after a number of deadly attacks early last year inside Israel, started to launch almost daily raids into the West Bank.
During the latest raid on the Jenin camp, the army said that it had uncovered militant hideouts, arms depots and explosives manufacturing facilities.
“The weapons were located in hideouts, a mosque, pits concealed in civilian areas, operational situation rooms and in vehicles,” it said.
The Jenin clashes sparked renewed international concern.
The UN decried the violence in Tel Aviv and Jenin.
“The killing, maiming and the destruction of property must stop,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Tuesday.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, praised the “heroic” attack in Tel Aviv as “an initial response to crimes against our people in the Jenin camp.”
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders condemned Israeli forces for firing tear gas inside Jenin’s Khalil Suleiman hospital, calling it “unacceptable.”
Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila accused the army of shooting at Palestinians in Jenin public hospital’s courtyard, saying it marked a moment when “Israel’s aggression reached its climax.”
The Israeli army said reports on the incident are “not currently known to security forces” and added that “terrorist organizations have exploited civilian areas as a hideout.”
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