West Bank: Fighting in Jenin on fourth day of large-scale Israeli operation

Fighting took place Saturday in the northern West Bank, on the fourth day of a large “anti-terrorist” operation Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territory where two men who were preparing to carry out attacks were killed, according to the Israeli army.

In the Gaza Strip, where war has been raging for nearly eleven months, Israel is continuing its deadly offensive in response to the bloody attack carried out by the Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7.

The Gaza Civil Defense said it had pulled 29 bodies from the rubble since dawn and transported dozens of wounded to hospitals across the devastated Palestinian territory.

In Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian territory separated from Gaza, the sound of fighting echoed Saturday in the deserted streets where only Israeli armored vehicles circulate. An Israeli drone and two military helicopters flew over the city in the morning.

In the Nur Shams refugee camp, near Tulkarem, in the occupied West Bank, after a large-scale Israeli military operation against armed groups resisting the Israeli occupation, on August 30, 2024. © AFP – JAAFAR ASHTIYEH

The Israeli army also indicated that it had “eliminated” during the night from Friday to Saturday two Palestinians who were preparing to carry out explosive attacks near settlements in the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

“A terrorist attempted to carry out a car bomb attack” near the Guzh Etzion settlement bloc, then a second was chased after “infiltrating Karmei Zur,” another settlement further south, the army said. Two Palestinian groups, Islamic Jihad and Hamas, hailed a “coordinated attack.”

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 20 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by the Israeli army since Wednesday, most of them fighters, during operations launched simultaneously in three cities in the north of the occupied territory. The Israeli army claims to have killed “20 terrorists”.

Among those killed is an 82-year-old man, according to the Palestinian agency Wafa, and two teenagers aged 13 and 17, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which has also recorded 55 injured since Wednesday.

– “Anti-terrorist” operation –

West Bank: Israel's military operation © AFP – Omar KAMAL, Aníbal Maíz Cáceres

Hamas, in power since 2007 in Gaza, and Islamic Jihad have announced that at least 13 of those killed were fighters from their armed branches. These, like other Palestinian groups, claim to be resisting Israeli troops in the West Bank.

Since Friday, Israeli soldiers have only been patrolling the city of Jenin and its refugee camps, a symbolic stronghold of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel, after withdrawing from Toubas and Tulkarem and their refugee camps, tearing up the streets and carrying out strikes, including air strikes, on vehicles or houses where Palestinians were located.

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An Israeli army checkpoint is set up on a road leading to a hospital in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on August 30, 2024 © AFP – RONALDO SCHEMIDT

The Israeli army launched this operation described as “anti-terrorist” by sending columns of armored vehicles supported by aircraft to Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas and their refugee camps, strongholds of armed groups fighting against Israel, raising fears among the international community of an escalation of violence.

Israeli incursions into the Palestinian autonomous zone are a daily occurrence in the occupied West Bank, where deadly violence has been escalating since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, but rarely on such a scale magnitude.

– Nine dead from the same family –

Palestinian Red Crescent rescuers evacuate the body of a man killed during an Israeli military operation in the Nour Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on August 29, 2024 © AFP – JAAFAR ASHTIYEH

In the Gaza Strip, nine adults from the same family, including two women, died in the bombing of a house in the Nusseirat refugee camp (center) on Saturday morning, Marwan Abou Nassar, a doctor at al-Awda hospital where their bodies arrived, told AFP.

During the night, an Israeli strike targeted the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the territory, killing and wounding others, according to Ahmed al-Kahlout, from the Civil Defense in Gaza.

Under the light of torches or mobile phones, rescuers carried the wounded to ambulances, while others searched for possible missing persons in the rubble through clouds of dust, according to images from AFPTV.

In the southern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported five people killed in a bombing of a house in Khan Younis.

A Palestinian woman east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip carries some items amidst the rubble, August 29, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

The Israeli army had announced on Friday that it had ended its ground operations in the regions of Khan Younès and Deir al-Balah (centre).

The war was triggered by the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.

© AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA

Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 103 are still being held in Gaza, including 33 declared dead by the army.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, as have the United States and the European Union.

Its army launched a major offensive in response in the Gaza Strip that has left at least 40,602 dead, according to the Hamas government's Health Ministry, causing a humanitarian and health disaster and displacing most of the 2.4 million inhabitants. According to the UN, the majority of the dead are women and minors.

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