Israeli forces continued their military operation in the northern West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp on Thursday.
During the 31 days of the operation, 26 Palestinians have been killed, dozens injured, and 120 refugee homes and infrastructure demolished, according to the Palestinian Authority’s news agency Wafa.
Israel says the operation is aimed at thwarting Iranian-backed militant groups in the occupied West Bank. Jenin is seen by Israel as a hotbed of resistance to its 58-year occupation of the Palestinian territory.
On Thursday Israeli forces also blew up a three-storey house in the northwestern West Bank city of Salfit. The house belonged to Omar Awdah. He was as shot dead after allegedly killing two Israelis and wounding two others in a knife attack near Tel Aviv in August. Israel has adopted a policy of demolishing the family homes of Palestinians who carry out attacks on Israelis.
Eric Adams, the New York mayor at the heart of Donald Trump’s attempt to reshape US justice department
Thanks to Trump, Saudi Arabia gets a big week in international diplomacy
Polls indicate German federal election will return Merkel-style coalition
Denis Staunton: As Europe wrings its hands at the US, the rest of the world may be organising
More than 41,000 Palestinians have fled their West Bank homes during the Israeli campaign in the territory, according to the UN Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa.
[ Hamas hands over bodies of youngest Gaza hostages taken from IsraelOpens in new window ]
On Wednesday the agency’s West Bank director Roland Friedrich said: “This is unprecedented. When you add to this the destruction of infrastructure, we’re reaching a point where the [refugee] camps are becoming uninhabitable.”
Humanitarian officials have said this is the largest displacement in the territory since 1967. Back then, 300,000 Palestinians became refugees when Israel conquered the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
The operation was launched as the ceasefire in Gaza took hold and has spread from Jenin to cities, towns and refugee camps throughout the West Bank.
The Israeli army said overall it has killed 60 Palestinians and arrested 210.
Several civilians have been among the dead. On February 9th, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces in Nur Shams in the northern West Bank shot 23-year-old Sundos Jamal Mohammed Shalabi, who was eight months pregnant and whose unborn child did not survive, and critically wounded her husband. The Israeli military said the incident was being investigated by its military police criminal investigation unit.
[ Occupied Territories Bill not ready before summer at earliest - TaoiseachOpens in new window ]
In the northern town of Anabta, mosques and government buildings have become makeshift shelters and residents have opened their homes to families driven from Nur Shams refugee camp and the town of Tulkarem.
Israel has denied accusations by Palestinians that they were told to evacuate by the Israeli army. However, Associated Press journalists in Nur Shams camp have said they heard Israelis using megaphones to issue orders to leave.
Wafa reported Israeli settlers have razed Palestinian winter crops in Masafer Yatta, a contested area near Hebron in the south of the West Bank. Last month Wafa said settlers vandalised and robbed 318 Palestinian West Bank properties, uprooting 960 olive trees.
The Palestinian health ministry said that at least 920 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 wounded in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th, 2023, following Hamas’s attack on Israel. Additional reporting: Reuters.
