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Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed in the largest Israeli military operation in the West Bank in 20 years.
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3 hours ago
On Monday (July 3) Israel launched the largest military operation in the West Bank in the last 20 years in the Jenin refugee camp, which has so far resulted in at least eleven Palestinian deaths and dozens of injuries.
According to the humanitarian organization Red Crescent, hundreds of Israeli soldiers are deployed and fighting has forced the evacuation of at least 3,000 Palestinians.
Opposing the Israeli troops are the Jenin Brigades, a unit made up of various Palestinian militias whose headquarters are in the refugee camp in the center of the city.
In this camp, people live in overcrowded conditions: According to the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA), around 14,000 residents live in less than half a square kilometer. The place became a battlefield.
According to the Israeli army, the aim is to destroy “terrorist infrastructure” and disarm the militias.
But the BBC’s Jerusalem correspondent Yolande Knell warned that “there is a risk of further Palestinian reactions, including from Gaza”.
On Tuesday, a vehicle rolled over seven people and seriously injured three in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. The attack was described as “heroic” by the Islamist organization Hamas, describing the attack as a response to the military operation in Jenin.
What was the trigger of the military operation in Jenin?
Violence in the refugee camp has escalated in recent weeks.
On June 20, seven Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on Jenin, in which the army used a helicopter gunship.
The following day, two Hamas militants shot dead four Israelis at a gas station and restaurant near the settlement of Eli, 40 km south of Jenin.
After the attack, hundreds of Israeli settlers burned homes and cars in the nearby town of Turmusaya, where a Palestinian was shot dead.
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Israeli troops are clashing with the Jenin Brigades, a unit made up of several Palestinian militias including Hamas and Islamic Jihad
Shortly after, an Israeli drone killed three Palestinian militants in Jenin after allegedly firing at a military checkpoint near the city.
The spiral of violence led to this military operation, the largest in recent years in the West Bank.
Israel says its target is not Palestinians, but “Iranianfunded militias” like Hamas and Islamic Jihad which Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen defines as “terrorist organizations.”
For Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, the operation is “a new attempt to destroy the country and expel its people”. He declared that the Palestinians will not surrender “as long as this criminal occupation continues.”
“Hardliners in the rightwing Israeli government have been pushing for the army to crack down for months,” says Paul Adams, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent.
However, he claims that some within the Israeli military fear it could further aggravate an already unstable situation.
Adams recalls that largescale attacks have been carried out against militant groups in Jenin and elsewhere in the past, but adds that these operations “have little impact on solving the underlying problems and often serve as a catalyst for further violence”.
Why is Jenin a hotspot?
Adams argues that Jenin is one of the places in the West Bank where a new generation of Palestinian militants has settled.
“These young militants have never experienced a peace process. You have no prospect of a diplomatic solution to the conflict. They have absolutely no faith in their own political leaders. So they are fighting the occupation in the only way they think possible.”
Jenin camp also has one of the highest poverty and unemployment rates of the 19 refugee camps in the West Bank, according to UN data.
Against this hopeless backdrop, armed resistance to Israel’s security measures in the West Bank has grown rapidly, says Alaa Daraghme, a correspondent for the BBC’s Arabic service, who has watched the number of militants in Jenin grow from tens to hundreds in just two years.
The Palestinians insist that Israel must halt the settlement building in the West Bank, which has mushroomed in recent years and which the current Israeli government does not want to ban.
According to Mustafa Barghouti, chair of the Palestine National Initiative, “The big question is: Why are these young people going this way?”
“That is because we are under military occupation [israelense] “56 years ago, when the world did nothing about it… These young people are in despair because the international community has allowed Israel to continue the occupation,” the Palestinian politician told the BBC.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), which has some administrative and security responsibilities in parts of the occupied territories, has also lost control of the Jenin refugee camp, says BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen.
For many Palestinians, Bowen says, the Palestinian Authority has lost authority under the leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas, who has not held elections in years.
“There is nothing the Palestinian Authority can do at this time to protect Palestinians from the activities of Israeli security forces, and particularly settlers living in statesponsored settlements that violate international law,” Bowen said.
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According to the Red Crescent, fighting in Jenin has forced the evacuation of at least 3,000 Palestinians from the refugee camp.
What is the history of Jenin refugee camp?
The camp was built in the early 1950s for Palestinians displaced during the 194849 war in which the newborn state of Israel fought against its Arab neighbors.
At that time, at least 750,000 people had to evacuate their homes in what the Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or “disaster.”
During the Second Intifada, a wave of violence that erupted in Israel and the Palestinian Territories between 2000 and 2005, the Jenin camp became one of the main points of tension.
In April 2002, following a campaign of suicide bombings in Israel in which many of the perpetrators were Jenin natives, Israeli forces launched a fullscale attack on the city that lasted ten days and became known as the Battle of Jenin.
At least 52 Palestinians, half of them civilians, and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting. About 400 houses were destroyed and a quarter of the population lost their homes.
A United Nations report criticized Israel for not allowing humanitarian aid into the refugee camp and criticized the Palestinian side for hiding militants in civilian homes.