Israel exerts pressure Large-scale military operation on the occupied West Bank It will continue for the fourth day on Saturday (August 31, 2024), as fierce fighting continues in the nearly 11-month-long Gaza war.
As clashes and explosions continued in the northern city of Jenin, the Israeli military said two Palestinians were killed while preparing to launch a bombardment overnight in the south of the West Bank.
Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war, described it as a “heroic operation” that came at a “sensitive time” during Israeli operations in the north.
Hamas’ ally Islamic Jihad, which has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, also said it “congratulated” the perpetrators for the “coordinated attack”.
The Israeli military described the vehicle explosion at a petrol station in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc as “an attempted car bombing by a terrorist”, who was later killed.
The statement said one military officer “was slightly injured, and a reserve officer responsible for security in a nearby community suffered minor injuries.”
In the second incident, the security chief of the Israeli settlement Karmei Tzur pursued a car with a “terrorist” who had infiltrated the settlement premises, resulting in a collision and “the terrorist was killed shortly after,” the statement said.
“During the encounter, an explosive device attached to the terrorist’s car exploded,” it said.
At least 20 Palestinians, most of them militants, have been killed in simultaneous raids by the Israeli military in several towns in the northern West Bank since Wednesday.
Since Friday, troops have focused their operations on the city of Jenin and its refugee camps, long a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups fighting Israel.
on a saturday morning, a AFP The photographer in Jenin heard about ongoing clashes in the city, where the streets were mostly empty except for armored vehicles, one of which blocked access to the government hospital.
“I think this is the worst day since the start of the raids… We hear reports of clashes from time to time and sometimes there are heavy bombings,” said Wissam Bakar, the hospital’s director.
He told AFP that water and electricity to the hospital were cut off during the raid, leaving the hospital to rely on generators and water tanks.
Bodies pulled out from the rubble
Violence has escalated in the West Bank since Hamas attacked on October 7.
At least 637 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the Gaza war began, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed during Palestinian attacks or military operations during the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Of the 20 Palestinians killed since Wednesday, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have said at least 13 were members of their armed wings.
The dead included an 82-year-old man, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, and two teenagers, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, and 55 others have been wounded since the Israeli operation began.
In Gaza, Israel stepped up its deadly offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Gaza’s civil protection agency said its rescue workers had pulled 29 bodies from the rubble since dawn and transported dozens of injured to hospitals across the devastated Palestinian territory.
On Friday, a medical source at the southern Nasser Hospital said three people were killed in an Israeli attack near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
The same day, two people were killed by Israeli shelling on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the civil protection agency said.
moratorium on polio vaccination
Britain, France and Spain expressed concern on Friday about Israeli operations in the West Bank, and Spain condemned “the start of violence, which is clearly unacceptable.”
Israel has agreed to a “humanitarian pause” of at least three days in parts of Gaza, starting on Sunday, to facilitate a vaccination drive after the territory reported its first case of polio in 25 years, the World Health Organization said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the measures were “not a ceasefire”.
Hamas attacks on October 7 killed 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants have taken 251 people hostage, 103 of whom are still being held in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The United Nations human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The war has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displacing most of its 2.4 million people and creating a humanitarian crisis.
“In August, the number of humanitarian missions and movements within Gaza that have been denied access by the Israeli authorities almost doubled compared to July,” the UN humanitarian office said on Friday.