Palestinians begin clearing rubble in Jenin after the Israeli army’s 10-day assault left a trail of destruction.
The Israeli army has withdrawn from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp after a military offensive that left many dead and destroyed essential infrastructure.
Palestinian news agency Wafa confirmed on Friday that Israeli forces had withdrawn from the town after a 10-day siege, but residents feared the soldiers would return after temporarily moving to surrounding military checkpoints.
At least 21 Palestinians, including children and elderly people, have been killed in Jenin in recent days, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement on Friday, and at least 130 others have been injured.
The Israeli military said Friday that its forces had “conducted counterterrorism activity in the Jenin area,” without confirming the withdrawal.
The army said in a statement that it had killed 14 “terrorists” and arrested more than 30 “suspects” in Jenin during the siege, and claimed to have destroyed about 30 explosives, as well as an underground weapons stockpile located under a mosque and an explosives production laboratory.
The Israeli army launched an offensive in the northern West Bank on August 28, targeting Jenin and Tulkarem among others, in its largest attack on the occupied territory since the second intifada in the early 2000s.
“Palestinians in Jenin can finally come out of their homes and see and assess the extent of the damage, while those who had to leave (the city) are finally returning,” said journalist Leila Warah, reporting from Ramallah.
She noted that the Israeli army was still present in other areas of the West Bank, with attacks in the Nablus and Balata refugee camps and raids in the Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah areas.
Residents of Jenin took advantage of the lull to search through the rubble of destroyed buildings and assess the damage.
Wafa reported that military checkpoints surrounding Jenin remained active, heightening fears of future incursions.
Before the announced withdrawal, five Palestinians were “severely beaten” on Thursday evening by Israeli forces at the al-Jalama military checkpoint, north of Jenin, according to Wafa.
Aziz Taleb, a 48-year-old father of seven, learned that the house he had lived in for 20 years in Jenin had been raided. “Thank God, (the children) left the day before. They went to our neighbors’ house,” Taleb told AFP as he surveyed the damage.
Imra Itisadeh, a 60-year-old Jenin resident, said: “At first, we didn’t want to leave. Later, (the Israeli army) put pressure on us and we had to leave our homes. I left with my husband (on foot).”
“Brutal destruction”
In a statement on Facebook, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused Israel of transferring to the West Bank the brutal destruction and devastation that the Gaza Strip has witnessed for the past 11 months.
He said the raids in Jenin and Tulkarem were “a clear target of Palestinian civilians and the foundations of their national and human existence in their homeland.”
During their raid in Nablus, Israeli forces arrested two university students at their homes.
A 30-year-old Palestinian man was also injured by shrapnel from bullets fired by Israeli forces following a raid on the Balata refugee camp, located east of Nablus.
Israeli soldiers also stormed the town of Idhna, west of Hebron, where they attacked a house.
The siege of Hebron has lasted for the fifth consecutive day, with soldiers closing all entrances to the governorate after carrying out three operations in less than 48 hours.