Israeli forces on Thursday pressed ahead with an offensive in Jenin, a city known as a center of armed opposition to Israel's occupation of the West Bank, capturing two men wanted on suspicion of killing three Israelis under siege. Killed.
The men, identified on Thursday as Mohammad Nazar and Qutaiba Shalabi, belong to the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad and targeted Israeli buses and cars in the West Bank village of al-Hunduq earlier this month. There was a shooting incident. This was announced by the Israeli army.
Since the ceasefire in Gaza began this week, Israel has turned its attention to Jenin, which Israeli officials say is the military's top priority. It is the latest in a series of operations to search for militants who have trashed roads and left many Gazans living in fear hiding in their homes. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Wednesday that at least 10 people were killed and more than 40 injured in this week's attacks.
The official Palestinian POW committee announced that dozens of people had been arrested.
The Israeli military said in a statement Thursday that the two militants were killed in a gunfight the previous day in the village of Burchin, just west of Jenin. One Israeli soldier was injured.
Al-Aqsa TV, run by Hamas, published photos of both men and said they were members of an armed group. At the same time, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirmed the deaths of two men suspected of carrying out the attack. According to the newspaper, Nazar, 25, was the leader of the Jenin battalion.
Social messaging app Telegram said in a statement that he died “following a confrontation with surrounding enemy forces.” It is not clear whether Mr. Nazar is a member of both groups.
The operation comes amid sharply escalating tensions in the West Bank, with armed groups gaining strength and settler violence against Palestinian civilians spiking.
In the June 6 militant attack, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on civilian buses and cars. Israeli settlers attacked the village, along with other West Bank towns, this week, torching vehicles and buildings, according to Palestinian officials and the Israeli military.
In recent attacks, Israeli bulldozers have torn up roads and water pipes, searching for explosives planted by militants.
Jenin Mayor Mohammad Jalal said thousands of people had been evacuated from the neighborhood known as the Jenin camp, which is the center of Israeli operations. Those who remain have been cut off from electricity and water, creating a potential “humanitarian disaster,” he said.
“Every time we rebuild, it just gets destroyed again in the next raid,” he said.
The city has opened several public shelters to accommodate those displaced by the Israeli military operation, but is struggling to provide them with enough food and supplies, Jalal added.
Hospital director Wissam Bakr said the Israeli military had set up a checkpoint near Jenin's main public hospital and was screening all vehicles entering and exiting the medical complex. Dr. Bakr said that in most cases, the military moved ambulances through relatively quickly after inspections, but sometimes soldiers held back ambulances, causing delays.
The Israeli operation meant that the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, carried out their own operation in Jenin after handing over much of the city's security to the Israeli military. It was carried out in response to the
Palestinian officials say the Israeli operation is seen as the most serious since a 10-day raid on the West Bank in August and September that killed 39 people, most of them in Jenin. . Houses, shops and roads were also destroyed in the attack.
The United Nations condemns the violence in the West Bank, and the world's highest court, the International Court of Justice, issued an advisory opinion in the summer stating that Israel's occupation and settlement of the West Bank and East Jerusalem violates international law. . Law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the opinion and said the settlement was legal.
Jenin is a center of Palestinian resistance to both the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and many young people there have joined Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other armed groups. .
