The Israeli army continued a new counter-terrorism operation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday, arresting at least 25 people yesterday, according to Palestinian news media.
The total number of people killed since the start of the raid rose to 10, up from eight on Tuesday, and four more people were wounded in Jenin, according to Palestinian officials, quoted by Wafa, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority.
The Israeli offensive, in its second day, was not just focused on Jenin.
On Wednesday, the army made arrests in Jenin, Ramallah, Hebron, Tilakram and Bethlehem, officials said. Increased security at Israeli checkpoints across the region slowed or halted traffic; In one case a The Palestinian health ministry said the 45-year-old woman died at a checkpoint outside Hebron while waiting for permission to go to a hospital.
Jenin Mayor Mohammad Jarrar told Wafa that Israeli forces detained about 600 people overnight at Jenin’s government hospital, but they were allowed to leave on Wednesday morning. Israeli bulldozers are blocking the hospital’s entrance with dirt from nearby streets, the news agency said.
Mr. Jarrar also said that people had been forced to leave their homes, a claim denied by Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. “There is no evacuation order in Jenin,” he said.
Briefing journalists about the operation, Colonel Shoshani said that people were temporarily housed in the hospital to ensure that they were not harmed by the explosives that the army was detonating nearby.
Since a temporary cease-fire in Gaza over the weekend, Israel has turned its attention to the West Bank, where tensions have risen after militants took power and Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians escalated. is
Colonel Shoshani said the scope of the operation in the West Bank was similar to what the army had done in August. According to Palestinian news media and residents, 21 people were killed in the 10-day raid in Jenin. It was one of the most extensive and deadly raids in the West Bank in years.
The colonel said the operation was Israel’s latest effort to thwart militant attacks, many of which involved improvised explosive devices planted under both civilian roads and Israeli military vehicles.
“Our strategy is to fight these terrorists while we enable the civilian population to get on with their lives,” Col Shoshani said.
In relation to social media Posts On Wednesday, Roland Friedrich, the West Bank director of the UN aid agency for Palestinians, said the Israeli operation had been “anticipated until the last days” and was using advanced weapons, including airstrikes, on Jenin.
