According to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry, 18 Palestinians were killed in clashes with the Israeli army in several locations in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, including 14 in the city of Jenin alone, a stronghold of armed groups.
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The raid in Jenin, in the north of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, is the deadliest Israeli operation in the West Bank since 2005, according to the United Nations.
AFP
According to the ministry, four Palestinians were killed in other locations: one in Balata refugee camp near Nablus (north), one in Al-Amari near Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is based, one in Doura and one in Beit Fajjar near Hebron (south).
In Jenin, the Palestinian Red Crescent claimed that one of its rescuers was injured “by bullets (shots) in the back.”
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In the evening, the Israeli army said it had carried out an “anti-terror operation in Jenin (refugee) camp” in which “more than ten terrorists were killed” and “more than 20 wanted suspects were arrested”.
Among them were two Islamic Jihad fighters who “shot” at their soldiers or “put them in danger,” she said.
The army mentions certain confiscated weapons (rifles, rifles, handguns) and claims to have destroyed an “underground tunnel with explosive devices ready for use.”
According to an AFP journalist, heavy fighting broke out in the Jenin camp, which was surrounded by thick black smoke. The noise of explosions and volleys of small arms continued throughout the day.
AFP
The AFP journalist in particular saw an armed man hit by gunfire and lying on the ground before another man picked up his weapon to fire.
The city of Jenin and its busy refugee camp, which according to the UN has around 23,000 inhabitants, have been the scene of repeated clashes in recent months.
Jenin, like all major cities in the West Bank, is said to be under the sole control of the Palestinian Authority and its security forces.
For the Israeli army, these operations are a response to a “significant increase in terrorist attacks” in the West Bank, with more than 550 attempted attacks since the war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas began on October 7 in Gaza.
AFP
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, around 180 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by shelling by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the start of this war, which was sparked by the deadly Hamas attack in Israel on October 7.
The army says it has arrested more than 1,400 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, most of whom it believes are linked to Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
But more than 2,000 Palestinians were arrested during the same period, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, an NGO that supports them.
The West Bank is geographically separated from the Gaza Strip, which has been bombed relentlessly by Israel since October 7 in response to the Hamas attack.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 1,400 people have been killed since the start of the war, most of them civilians on the day of the Hamas attack, which was of unprecedented violence and scale since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.
According to the Hamas Health Ministry, Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip have claimed more than 10,800 lives, mostly civilians.