JENIN: Israeli forces killed eight Palestinians in a large-scale operation on Monday in the occupied West Bank in what the army labelled an “extensive counterterrorism effort” involving drone strikes and hundreds of troops as the US backed the operation, saying Israel has the right to ensure its security and defend its people.

The military raid launched under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government in Jenin was the biggest in the West Bank in years, featuring armoured vehicles, army bulldozers and unmanned aerial vehicles. Gun battles and explosions rocked the city and adjacent refugee camp, a stronghold of armed groups, as Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli troops and smoke from the blasts and burning street barricades blackened the sky.

“There is bombing from the air and an invasion on the ground,” said Mahmoud al-Saadi, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin.

“Several houses and sites have been bombed... smoke is rising from everywhere.” Eight people were killed and 50 wounded, 10 seriously, the Palestinian health ministry said -- exceeding the toll of seven dead in an Israeli army raid in Jenin two weeks ago which saw the rare use of helicopter missile fire.

US backs operation in illegally-occupied West Bank; Islamic Jihad says keeping ‘all options open’ to respond

Monday’s operation featured “brigade-level” troop numbers, said Israeli army spokesman Richard Hecht, while Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told reporters that “we are striking the terrorism hub with great strength”. The Israeli military requires at least another 24 hours to complete the operation begun in the West Bank city of Jenin in the early hours of Monday morning, a person briefed on the military’s planning said.

Homes being bulldozed

On the other hand, Jenin resident Badr Shagoul said: “I saw them [Israeli forces] taking bulldozers into the camp, they were destroying buildings ... These were people’s homes.” Israel had already stepped up armed operations in recent weeks in the northern West Bank, which has seen a spate of attacks on Israelis as well as Jewish settler violence targeting Palestinian communities.

Jenin camp resident Mahmoud Hawashin, speaking at a crowded hospital, said the situation was “catastrophic” and predicted that “for every action there is a reaction”.

“If there is more Palestinian bloodshed, there will be more Israeli bloodshed.”

The Palestinian group of Islamic Jihad said “all options are open to strike the enemy in response to its aggression in Jenin”.

In a separate incident, a Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli fire near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian health ministry said.

US backs operation

The White House is monitoring closely the situation in the West Bank, where Israeli forces hit the city of Jenin with drone strikes as part of one of the biggest West Bank operations in 20 years, a White House spokesperson said on Monday.

“We have seen the reports and are monitoring the situation closely,” the spokesperson said.

“We support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups,” the spokesperson said.

The Israeli army said that in Jenin it had struck a “joint operations centre” of a group called the Jenin Brigade, as well as a weapons depot, an “observation and reconnaissance” site, and a hideout for those alleged to have carried out recent attacks on Israeli targets.

Israeli-Palestinian violence has worsened since last year, and escalated further under the current Netanyahu administration which took power in December, a coalition that includes extreme-right allies.

The Jenin area is nominally under the control of president Mahmud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967. Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is now home to around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.

The Palestinians, who seek their own independent state, want Israel to withdraw from all land it occupied in 1967 and to dismantle all Jewish settlements. However, Netanyahu has pledged to “strengthen settlements” and has expressed no interest in reviving peace talks.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2023