At least eight Palestinians had been killed and dozens of others injured as Israel launched one of many largest navy raids within the final 20 years on occupied West Bank’s Jenin on Monday.
The sounds of gunfire and explosives could possibly be heard throughout the town hours after the strike and drones had been clearly audible overhead, the Jenin Brigades, an armed group primarily based within the metropolis’s giant refugee camp, mentioned it was participating the Israeli forces.
At least six drones could possibly be seen circling over the town and the adjoining camp, a densely packed space that homes round 14,000 folks in lower than half a sq. kilometer.
Operations of this scale have hardly ever been seen within the metropolis for the reason that finish of the second Intifada rebellion 20 years in the past.
“What is going on in the refugee camp is real war,” mentioned Palestinian ambulance driver, Khaled Alahmad. “There were strikes from the sky targeting the camp, every time we drive in around five to seven ambulances and we come back full with injured people.”
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed no less than eight folks had been killed and 80 wounded in Jenin, whereas one other man was killed within the metropolis of Ramallah after being shot within the head at a checkpoint.
The Israeli navy claimed its forces focused a constructing that served as a command heart for the Jenin Brigades within the West Bank.
Until final month, when it carried out a strike on June 21 close to Jenin, the Israeli navy had not used drone strikes within the West Bank since 2006.
The obvious scale of Monday’s raid, involving a drive described as “brigade-size” – suggesting round 1,000-2,000 troops – underlined Jenin’s place in Israel’s current technique to curb armed teams together with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah.
But the rising violence may set off a wider response from the Palestinians, drawing in teams within the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave managed by Hamas.
“The resistance will confront the enemy and defend the Palestinian people and all options are open to strike the enemy and respond to its aggression on Jenin,” mentioned a press release from the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza.
Protests flare in Jenin
As daylight broke on Monday in Jenin, thick black smoke from burning tires set alight by protesters, residents swirled by means of the streets whereas calls to assist the demonstrators rang out from loudspeakers in mosques.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas referred to as the operation “a new war crime against our defenseless people.”
The Israeli navy alleged the focused constructing functioned as an “advanced observation and reconnaissance center,” in addition to a coordination and communications hub for the armed teams.
It offered an aerial {photograph} displaying what it mentioned was the goal and which indicated the constructing hit was close to two colleges and a medical heart.
Only days earlier than final month’s drone strike, the military used helicopter gunships throughout a raid that killed 5 Palestinians.
The escalating violence within the West Bank over the previous 15 months has brought on mounting worldwide alarm, with common military raids in cities like Jenin, a collection of lethal assaults by Palestinians in opposition to Israelis, and rampages by Jewish settler mobs in opposition to Palestinian villages.
Israel captured the West Bank, which the Palestinians see because the core of a future impartial state, together with East Jerusalem and Gaza, within the 1967 Middle Eastern struggle. Following many years of battle, peace talks that had been brokered by the United States have been frozen since 2014.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
