At the end of August, the Israeli army launched a large-scale “anti-terrorist” operation in Tubas and the neighbouring towns of Jenin and Tulkarem. The attack comes as the EU’s foreign policy chief expressed fears that the territory could turn into “a new Gaza Strip”.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least five people were killed on Wednesday in Israeli strikes in Tubas, in the northern occupied West Bank.
Violence has increased in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza. Israel is also stepping up its settlement policy in the territory, raising concerns in Brussels.
During his trip to Cairo, where he was taking part in a meeting of the Arab League, the head of European diplomacy said on Monday that he feared seeing the West Bank “transform into a new Gaza Strip”.
Josep Borrell considered it to be a “clear objective” of some members of the Israeli government, whom he accuses of “trying to make the creation of a future Palestinian state impossible.”
During his visit to Egypt, he visited the Rafah border crossing in the Egyptian Sinai, where he acknowledged the EU’s impotence in the face of the blocking of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave.
In the Gaza Strip, a UN convoy, identified as such, was held at gunpoint by the Israeli army for several hours, according to a spokesperson for Antonio Guterres.
“The UN vehicles were surrounded by Israeli forces and shots were fired”said Stéphane Dujarric.
This is not the first time that UN vehicles have been targeted. In August, a World Food Programme vehicle was hit several times at an Israeli army checkpoint.