At least 10 Palestinians have been killed as Israel launched its biggest military operation in the West Bank in almost two decades.
The attack, which began on Tuesday night, focused on militant strongholds in Jenin, Tulkarm and the Jordan Valley in the northern West Bank. Ground troops, supported by helicopters and drones, attacked the various locations simultaneously in an effort to prevent Palestinian fighters moving from one area to another. The Palestinian health ministry said troops had surrounded Jenin’s main hospital, blocking off access with earth mounds – a measure the military said was intended to prevent fighters seeking refuge. Israel said its troops would not enter the hospitals.
The Palestinian Authority security forces rarely enter these areas, leaving militant gangs effectively in control, particularly in the refugee camps.
Israel said its “anti-terror” operation, which is expected to continue for a few days, was aimed at removing the growing threat of improvised explosive devices and followed a recent attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
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Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia to deal with what he termed “Israel’s escalating aggression in the northern West Bank”.
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The United Nations warned that the Israeli operation “risks seriously deepening the already catastrophic situation” in the West Bank.
Israel’s foreign minister Yisrael Katz called on Israel to consider temporarily relocating Palestinians as part of the West Bank operation. “We need to deal with the terror threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step,” he said, calling the operation “a war in every sense”.
More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in clashes with Israeli troops since the start of the Gaza war in October, as Israel has stepped up its military incursions. There has also been an increase in violent attacks by Jewish settlers targeting Palestinian civilians. Washington on Wednesday added new individuals and organisations to a growing sanctions list targeting extremist settlers.
An Israeli drone strike on a car crossing through a Syrian checkpoint near the border with Lebanon killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander, and three other militants.
Israeli negotiators arrived in Qatar on Wednesday for more talks on a ceasefire and a deal to release hostages held in Gaza as CIA deputy director David Cohen said the fate of a potential agreement between Israel and Hamas was “largely a question that is going to be answered” by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Families of hostages held in Gaza drove in a convoy on Wednesday from Tel Aviv to the Gaza border, demanding the government agree to a ceasefire before more hostages die in captivity. Shira Elbag, the mother of hostage Liri Elbag, welcomed Tuesday’s rescue of Kaid Farhan Elkadi from a Hamas tunnel in Rafah by Israeli troops but said only a deal will bring back all the remaining hostages.
The latest round of Israeli-Palestinian violence began on October 7th after Hamas militants stormed from Gaza into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s Gaza campaign has since demolished swathes of the enclave, displaced nearly all its 2.3 million people multiple times, given rise to deadly hunger and disease and killed more than 40,500 people, Palestinian health officials say.
Israeli forces sent tanks deeper into Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and launched strikes across the enclave as they battled Hamas-led militants, killing at least 34 Palestinians on Wednesday, according to medics.
Residents of Khan Younis said Israeli tanks made a surprise advance into the centre of the city, and the military ordered evacuations in the east, forcing many families to run for safety, while others were trapped at home.
About 100 hostages who returned from Hamas captivity in Gaza and the families of hostages who have returned or who remain in captivity wrote to minister Miri Regev to say that they would not agree to “the cynical use of the names of the hostages that the state has abandoned for nearly a year”, as part of the national memorial ceremony she is planning to mark the October 7th Hamas attack.
The signatories asked Ms Miri to reconsider the state ceremony planned by the government and called instead for a ceremony that will focus on returning the hostages. The families are planning an alternative outdoor concert in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon park to be attended by tens of thousands. – Additional reporting: Reuters
