Global Courant
A Palestinian holds a national flag at the border fence with Israel, during a protest against the Israeli military assault on Jenin in the West Bank.
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Israel is about to wrap up its operation in Jenin, a senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday after the fiercest fighting in the West Bank city in more than two decades, which left 10 Palestinians dead and thousands forced to flee. to flee.
The attack involving hundreds of commandos and airstrikes, which began early Monday, prompted the internationally backed Palestinian government to say it was suspending contacts with Israel and sparked humanitarian concerns from the US and UN.
Codenamed for the operation in Jenin’s tenement-like refugee camp “Home and Garden,” Israel says its goal is to uproot Iranian-backed Palestinian factions behind a spate of gun and bomb attacks and preliminary rocket-building efforts.
A Palestinian wounded in the house-to-house fighting died overnight and another body was found in the morning, bringing the death toll to 10, with about 100 wounded, 20 of them critical, the Palestinian Ministry of Defense said. Public health.
The Islamic Jihad faction claimed four of the dead as fighters. Hamas, another Islamist faction, claimed a fifth. It was not immediately clear whether the other five fatalities – men aged 17 to 23 – were combatants or civilians.
The operation “has almost completed its stated goals,” Israel’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanebi told Kan radio station after a relative lull in the overnight clashes.
The Israeli army said it had confirmation that nine Palestinians were killed by its troops. All were combatants, it said, adding that 120 suspected gunmen were being held for questioning.
Troops would be sent to specific target areas in the camp on Tuesday to continue the search, said chief military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari. “If there is friction with terrorists, we will fight them,” he tweeted.
Offices and businesses in the occupied West Bank were expected to close on Tuesday in response to calls for a general strike to protest the operation, which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has described as a “war crime”.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had evacuated 500 families, or about 3,000 people, from the camp, which houses some 14,000 people in less than half a square kilometer and was one of the focal points of a wave of violence covering the West Bank for more than a year.
Aid organizations called on Israel to guarantee humanitarian access. The United States said on Monday that it respects Israel’s right to defend itself, but that civilian casualties should be avoided. The United Nations said all military operations must respect international law.
Hundreds of fighters from Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah live in the camp, which has been fortified with a series of obstacles and sentries to counter regular army attacks.
“The ruthless (Israeli) aggression will not break the will of the brave Jenin,” said an Islamic Jihad statement, adding that fighters had detonated several bombs near the troops.
When asked about the casualties, the army said one soldier was slightly injured by a grenade.
On Monday, Israeli bulldozers plowed the streets in the camp to destroy improvised explosive devices and cut off water and electricity supplies, though Israeli officials said they would work to restore services.
On Tuesday, the army said Border Police had found an underground shaft used to store explosives in the refugee camp and dismantled two observation posts.
