Israel’s deadly raid on Jenin entered its third day as its forces threatened residents of the city’s refugee camp with forced evacuation.
Hundreds of Palestinians from the Jenin refugee camp began leaving their homes on Thursday.
“The Israeli army, using loudspeakers on drones and military vehicles, ordered them to evacuate the camp,” where the Israeli army launched an intense military operation this week, the Israeli army told AFP. governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub.
Elsewhere, two Palestinians were killed overnight in attacks by Israeli forces in Burqin, bringing the death toll to 12 in Jenin governorate during the first two days of large-scale raids.
The raids are part of Israel’s Iron Wall campaign in the occupied Palestinian territory, launched just days after a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Palestinian news network Al Quds Today reported that Muhammad Abu al-Asaad and Qutaiba al-Shalabi were killed in “an armed clash with occupying forces that lasted several hours.”
The Israeli military confirmed the killings on Thursday, saying the two men were affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and were wanted for carrying out the shooting attack in the village of Funduq in Qalqilya governorate earlier this month that killed three Israelis and injured six.
However, the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, said the two men were Hamas members.
The Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs said Israeli forces refused to return their bodies.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that Israeli forces involved in the killings surrounded a house in Burqin and fired shots and missiles into it before razing it with a bulldozer.
Hassan Sobh, the mayor of Burqin, was quoted as saying in the report that Israeli soldiers used women as human shields during the attack.
On Wednesday, Defense for Palestinian Children International (DCIP) reported that a 16-year-old boy, Motaz Imad Mousa Abu Tabeekh, had been shot and killed by Israeli forces.
According to the Ramallah-based organization, he was one of seven Palestinian minors killed this year in Israeli attacks in the occupied West Bank. Four of them were killed by Israeli drone attacks and three were shot down.
Israeli forces arrested 22 Palestinians across the occupied territory between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, according to the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Society of Palestinian Prisoners.
The joint statement on Telegram said the arrests took place in the governorates of Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarem, Ramallah and Jerusalem, and involved “abuses and destruction of infrastructure, as well as vandalism and destruction of citizens’ homes “.
“Collective punishment”
The Jenin refugee camp, established by UNRWA in 1953 to accommodate displaced Palestinians, is a hub for Palestinian resistance groups operating under the umbrella of the Jenin Brigade and has long been a focal point of military incursions Israelis.
Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani said the raid on the camp was aimed at countering “hundreds of terrorist attacks, both in Judea and Samaria (occupied West Bank) and in the rest of Israel “.
The attacks on Jenin are just one element of Israel’s intensified operations in the West Bank, which the Palestinian Authority (PA) says aim to “gradually annex” the territory.
Recent Israeli raids in the West Bank include:
- Camp Shu’fat in Jerusalem
- Sa’ir, north of Hebron
- Barham, north of Ramallah
- Rammun, east of Ramallah
- Birzeit, north of Ramallah
- Beita, south of Nablus
- Azzun, east of the town of Qalqilya
- Qalqilyah
The sudden increase in settler attacks and Israeli military operations has frightened Palestinians in the occupied territories, who believe they could now suffer the same fate as their compatriots in Gaza.
Residents also reported a significant increase in Israeli checkpoints and delays throughout the territory.
Speaking to Tel Aviv Tribune from Bethlehem, Palestinian researcher and activist Hamza Zubiedat said the situation in the occupied territory had become “catastrophic”.
“By isolating and cutting off Palestinian villages and towns from each other, this means that there will be no more doctors, nurses, teachers, and even transport of goods, fruits and vegetables from one place to another.
“This means more poverty and suffering for the Palestinian people,” he said.
Zubiedat said Israel was carrying out “an ongoing annexation process” with the support of the Trump administration, with the new US president having already lifted sanctions imposed on more than 30 Israeli settler groups and entities by his predecessor.
Elise Stefanik, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told U.S. senators on Tuesday that Israel has a “biblical right” to the West Bank.
In response, Farhan Haq, spokesperson for the UN chief, told Tel Aviv Tribune: “The future of the West Bank, Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories as a whole must be resolved through negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities. »