The Israeli military announced on Monday that it was attacking targets in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin as part of a “full-scale counter-terrorism campaign”. The action was primarily aimed at a command center that the Israeli military said was being used by militants in a refugee camp next to the city.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, eight people were killed and 50 injured in the attacks. According to the ministry, ten of the injured were critically injured.
The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted the Israeli army as saying that an Israeli soldier was slightly injured by shrapnel and taken to a hospital.
A number of clashes have erupted in Jenin recently as tensions rose in the region. Image: Raneen Sawafta/Portal
An Israeli army spokesman, Richard Hecht, told reporters that up to seven militants are believed to have been killed. Hecht said around 2,000 soldiers were involved in the operation and that military drones carried out a series of attacks.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Israeli military set up roadblocks in the camp, occupied houses and buildings and placed snipers on rooftops.
The army said it targeted a weapons cache. Haaretz said a laboratory used to make explosives and parts of a rocket launcher were seized along with other weapons.
Haaretz also quoted army sources as saying that Israeli soldiers conducted weapons searches in the camp and had arrested 20 Palestinians so far.
Officials have indicated that Israeli forces could remain in the camp for days. “An operation doesn’t end in a day,” Energy Minister Israel Katz, a member of the security cabinet, told army radio.
Israel has targeted a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank
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Escalating tensions
In Jenin and the adjacent refugee camp, there have been repeated confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in recent weeks, and international observers have expressed concern about escalating violence in the area. Last month, Israel killed three gunmen near Jenin in the first drone strike in the West Bank since 2006.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 147 Palestinians were killed that year and 23 Israelis in the same period.
tj, jsi/ab (dpa, AFP, Portal, AP)