Israeli troops withdraw from West Bank’s Jenin
Israeli forces have withdrawn from the Palestinian city of Jenin, witnesses say, after carrying out one of their biggest military operations in the West Bank.
Israeli forces enter Jenin in northern Samaria on July 3, 2023. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90.
Two Reuters witnesses said they saw convoys of Israeli military vehicles leaving Jenin after dark in what appeared to signal an end to an Israeli operation that began early on Monday.
Twelve Palestinians, at least five of them fighters, and one Israeli soldier had been killed.
The operation, which the army said was aimed at destroying militant infrastructure and weapons in the Jenin refugee camp, was launched with a drone strike on Monday, with more than a thousand troops deployed.
After they left, residents who had vacated the camp during the fighting began returning to its dark streets.
Some surveyed the damage to the light of their mobile phones.
The densely populated refugee camp, where some 14,000 people live in less than half a square kilometre, has been one of the foc al points of a wave of violence that has swept the West Bank for more than a year, drawing growing international alarm.
A few hours after the forces began withdrawing, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired five rockets toward Israel, the military said.
The rockets were intercepted and there were no immediate reports of casualties.
There was a further escalation on Tuesday with a car-ramming and stabbing attack claimed by the Palestinian Hamas militant group in Israel’s business hub Tel Aviv, in which eight people were hurt.
As Israeli troops left Jenin, explosions could still be heard in the northern West Bank city amid reports of a gunbattle near a Jenin hospital.
Reuters could not immediately verify that report.
Doctors Without Borders said Israeli forces had fired tear gas at a hospital where its teams were working.
The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of its forces firing in the vicinity of a hospital but it did carry out an air strike at gunmen in a cemetery w ho posed a threat to the withdrawing troops.
“At this moment we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive activity in Jenin is not a one-time operation,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a checkpoint near the city.
Palestinian fighters from militant groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah had fortified the camp with obstacles and watching posts to counter regular army raids.
Power and water supplies remained cut off in the camp and in some areas of the city after bulldozers that ploughed up roads looking for improvised bombs cut cables and a main water pipe.
Israeli forces uncovered underground explosives caches, one concealed in a tunnel under a mosque, confiscated a thousand weapons and arrested 30 suspects, the military said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had evacuated 500 families – about 3000 people – from the camp.
About 100 people have been injured, the Palestinian health ministry said, 20 of them seriously.
The Islamic Jihad claimed four of the 12 fatalities as its fighters.
Hamas claimed a fifth.
The status of the others was unclear.
Israeli officials said as far as they were aware, no civilians had been killed.
The fighting underlined once more the lack of any sign of a political solution to the decades-long conflict and international reaction to the operation was mixed.
The United States said it respected Israel’s right to defend itself but said it was imperative to avoid civilian casualties.
The European Union said it was gravely concerned by the escalation and United Nations bodies voiced alarm at the scale of the military action.
The UN Security Council said it would meet behind closed doors as requested by the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain condemned the operation.
AAP
