Israeli army ended a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank that resulted in the deaths of 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier, targeting the city of Jenin and its refugee camp, causing destruction and displacement of residents.
Israel’s army Wednesday 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 car ramming and stabbing attack before he was shot dead by an armed civilian.
And overnight, Israel carried out air strikes 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 late Tuesday, much of the crowded city was left charred and in rubble from the fighting, which displaced at least 3,000 residents.
Israel’s right-wing 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 labeled the escalation an act of “open war against the people of Jenin.”
During the latest raid on the Jenin camp, the army uncovered militant hideouts, arms depots, and explosives manufacturing facilities.
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.
After several deadly attacks early last year inside Israel, the Israeli army started to launch almost daily raids into the West Bank.
The violence has further escalated since Netanyahu’s government took over late last year, with clashes concentrated in the northern West Bank area, long a hotbed of militancy.
The Jenin clashes sparked renewed international concern, and the United Nations decried the violence in Tel Aviv and Jenin.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP
