Israel’s deadly assault on Jenin entered its third day, with Israeli forces threatening residents of the city’s refugee camps with forced evacuation.
Hundreds of Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp began leaving their homes on Thursday.
“The Israeli army ordered the evacuation of the camp using the loudspeakers of drones and military vehicles,” Jenin’s governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP news agency.
Elsewhere, two Palestinian men were killed overnight in an Israeli attack in Burchin, bringing the death toll across Jenin governorate to 12 in the first two days of major attacks.
The raid is part of Israel’s Ironclad Operation across the occupied Palestinian territories, which began just days after the ceasefire in Gaza.
Palestinian news network Al-Quds Today reported that Mohammed Abu al-Assad and Qutaiba al-Shalabi were killed in “an armed clash with occupation forces that lasted several hours.”
The Israeli army confirmed the killings on Thursday and named the two men, both members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, for carrying out a shooting that killed three Israelis and wounded six others in the village of Hunduk in Qalqilya province earlier this month. He claimed to have been wanted.
However, Hamas’ armed group Al Qassam Brigades claimed that the two were members of Hamas.
The Palestinian Civil Affairs Directorate said the Israeli military was refusing to release the bodies.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces involved in the killing surrounded Burchin’s home, firing bullets and missiles at him before destroying it with bulldozers.
Burchin Mayor Hassan Sob reportedly said in the report that Israeli soldiers used women as human shields during the attack.
On Wednesday, the International Organization for the Defense of Children in Palestine (DCIP) reported that 16-year-old Motaz Imad Moussa Abu Tabik was shot dead by Israeli forces.
He was one of seven Palestinian minors killed in Israeli attacks across the occupied West Bank this year, according to the Ramallah-based organization. Four of them were killed in Israeli drone strikes and three were shot dead.
Israeli forces arrested 22 Palestinians across the occupied territories between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, according to the Committee for the Affairs of Detainees and Former Detainees and the Palestinian Prisoners of War Association.
A joint statement posted on Telegram said the arrests took place in the governorates of Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarem, Ramallah and Jerusalem, and included “abuse and destruction of infrastructure, vandalism and destruction of residents’ homes”. Ta.
“Collective punishment”
The Jenin refugee camp, established by UNRWA in 1953 to house displaced Palestinians, is the center of a Palestinian resistance group operating under the umbrella of the Jenin Brigade, and has long been the epicenter of Israeli military invasions. Ta.
Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said the raid on the camp was aimed at countering “hundreds of terrorist attacks in both Judea and Samaria (the occupied West Bank) and the rest of Israel.” claimed that it was.
The attack on Jenin is just one element of Israel’s consolidation operation in the West Bank, which the Palestinian Authority (PA) says aims to “gradually annex” the territory. .
Recent Israeli attacks across the West Bank include:
Shufat camp in Jerusalem Sayr, north of Hebron Barham, north of Ramallah Ramun, east of Ramallah Birzeit, north of Ramallah Beita, south of Nablus Azn, east of the city of Qalqilya
The sudden escalation of settler attacks and Israeli military operations has frightened Palestinians in the occupied territories, who believe they too could face the same fate as their Gaza compatriots.
Residents also report a significant increase in Israeli checkpoints and delays across the territory.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Bethlehem, Palestinian researcher and activist Hamza Zubiedat said the situation in the occupied territories had become “catastrophic”.
“Isolating and dividing Palestinian villages and cities from each other means that doctors, nurses and teachers will no longer be needed, and they will no longer be able to transport goods, fruits and vegetables from one place to another. .
“This means further poverty and suffering for the Palestinian people,” he said.
Zubiedat said Israel is undergoing an “ongoing annexation process” with support from the Trump administration, and the new US president has already lifted sanctions imposed by his predecessor on more than 30 Israeli settler groups and entities. He said that
Elise Stefanik, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, told US senators on Tuesday that Israel has a “biblical right” to the West Bank.
In response, UN chief spokesman Farhan Haq told Al Jazeera: “The future of the West Bank, Gaza and the entire Occupied Palestinian Territories needs to be addressed through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.” Ta.
