Israel’s biggest military offensive in two decades in the occupied West Bank has entered its third day, with the army, accompanied by bulldozers, leaving a trail of destruction after firing live ammunition and tear gas.
At least three people were killed early Friday after Israeli forces attacked a car in the village of Zababdeh, south of Jenin.
The Israeli military said one of its planes had “attacked a terrorist group” following an “encounter with security forces.” Footage taken after the attack showed a car in flames.
The Jenin Battalion of the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said earlier that its fighters had engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli soldiers in Jenin.
Among those killed was Wissam Ayman Hazem, Hamas’ leader in Jenin, according to the Israeli army. The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, confirmed his death.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching the scene of the attack, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Israeli forces withdrew from the city of Tulkarem and its two refugee camps on Thursday evening after a 48-hour operation that left four people dead and inflicted massive destruction on civilian property and infrastructure.
Reporting from the Nur Shams refugee camp, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Nida Ibrahim said Palestinian civil defense teams were trying to repair some of the damage caused by the Israeli raid, with destroyed roads making movement difficult.
“If the Palestinians fix a water pipe here, a power line there, Israeli forces could come back very soon to ruin them again,” she said, adding that “Palestinians say Israel wants to make sure that their lives, especially in the refugee camps, become more complicated, leaving them with no choice but to leave.”
Israeli forces also withdrew from the Far’a refugee camp, south of Tubas, where four people were killed and civilian property and infrastructure destroyed.
The head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said the agency had had to suspend services to communities in several West Bank camps due to the Israeli attack.
While Jenin, Tulakrem and Tubas, all cities in the northern West Bank, were the scene of the worst violence, Israeli forces also targeted other locations, including Nablus and the nearby Balata refugee camp, the town of Anabta east of Tulakrem, the village of Husan west of Bethlehem, and parts of Hebron governorate.
The Israeli army made at least five arrests near Hebron and Ramallah, Wafa reported on Friday.
At least 20 people, including children, have been killed since the Israeli incursion began on Wednesday, according to Palestinian health officials and human rights groups. The Israeli military said it killed 12 Palestinian fighters.
The Israeli military says it is targeting members of armed groups, and Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters have exchanged attacks in several locations.
Residents, however, say Israeli soldiers are deliberately attacking refugee camps while destroying roads and infrastructure. Some fear that this is a long-term strategy to drive Palestinians from their own homes.
“The Israelis are creating an environment that pushes people to leave, almost completely destroying infrastructure and cutting off electricity and water. They want to leave people with nothing so that they ultimately have no choice but to leave on their own,” activist Hussein al-Sheikh Ali told Tel Aviv Tribune in Tulkarem.
But Tel Aviv Tribune’s Ibrahim also said: “People talk a lot about distrust. They say they know that Israeli forces want to make their lives more difficult… and that’s exactly why they’re here to stay.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called for a “temporary evacuation” of Palestinians from the West Bank to fight armed groups in the area – a statement that activists say could pave the way for a Gaza-like fate of destruction and mass displacement.