Thousands of Palestinian residents fled the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday, as Palestinian health officials said the death toll in Israel’s biggest raid on the camp in nearly two decades has risen to 10. Meanwhile, at least eight people were injured in an autoram attack on a crowded bus stop in the city of Tel Aviv, which the militant group Hamas said was in response to the ongoing raid on Jenin.
As Israel’s operation in Jenin camp, located in the West Bank city of the same name, continued for a second day, the Israeli army said it was seizing weapons and destroying command posts and tunnels belonging to Palestinian militant groups. Inside the camp, roads were ripped up and sporadic gunfire and explosions were heard throughout the day as Israeli troops and Palestinian militants clashed, although fighting was reportedly less intense than Monday.
Israeli forces intervene with gathered Palestinians to protest an ongoing Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in Jenin, West Bank, July 4, 2023. Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Jenin Mayor Nidal Al-Obeidi said around 4,000 people had fled the refugee camp to seek shelter elsewhere and Palestinians across the West Bank were watching a general strike to protest the crackdown, according to the Associated Press.
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“We are alarmed by the scale of the air and ground operations taking place in Jenin and continuing in the West Bank today, and particularly the airstrikes targeting the densely populated refugee camp,” said Vanessa Huguenin, spokeswoman for the UN Humanitarian Aid Office. She said she had heard reports that three children were among the dead. Palestinian officials said those killed were between the ages of 16 and 23, CBS News affiliate network BBC News reported.
The charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said roads in Jenin camp had been blocked or vandalized and paramedics were forced to walk to reach the wounded amid gunfire and drone strikes.
Israel launches military operation in West Bank, Palestinian officials speak of at least eight dead
“The use of helicopter gunships and drone strikes in such a densely populated area represents a clear increase in intensity and is downright outrageous,” said Jovana Arsenijevic, MSF Jenin coordinator, in a statement. “The hospital where we treat patients was hit by tear gas canisters. Medical facilities, ambulances and patients must be respected.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the Israeli forces are “completing the mission” but that “our extensive activity in Jenin is not a one-off operation,” the AFP news agency reported.
On Tuesday afternoon, a 20-year-old attacker drove his car into a crowded bus stop in Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-largest city, before exiting and attempting to stab people with a knife. The attacker was shot dead by an armed civilian at the scene, police said.
Members of Israel’s security and emergency personnel work at the scene of an autoram attack in Tel Aviv, July 4, 2023. Getty
“For the first few seconds you thought it might have been a driver error,” a witness told BBC News. “He left the room through the window and not the door – like in a movie – with a knife in his hand and started chasing civilians. Now you understand that it was an attack. We ran for our lives.”
The militant group Hamas identified the attacker behind what it has hailed as a “heroic operation” and “legitimate self-defense” against the Israeli operation in Jenin.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the site of the attack in Tel Aviv and urged more Israeli citizens to take up arms, BBC News reported.
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Haley Ott