Twelve Palestinians were killed during a significant two-day operation carried out by the Israeli army in the Jenin region of the occupied West Bank, which resulted in the displacement of thousands of civilians.
In response to rocket fire from the coastal enclave, Israeli forces launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip earlier.
After the two-day operation, which claimed the lives of 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier, the Israeli army said that it had withdrew forces from the Jenin refugee camp.
Israel ends Jenin operation and trades fire with Gaza
In addition to drone strikes and army bulldozers tearing up streets, the raid in the West Bank was Israel’s largest military action in years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to conduct comparable operations if necessary prior to the disengagement.
He remarked during a visit to a military post outside of Jenin, “At these moments we are concluding the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off. “We will eradicate terrorism wherever we see it, and we will strike at it.”
The army reported that it launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday after intercepting five rockets aimed towards Israeli territory.
According to a Palestinian security source, the attack in northern Gaza targeted a Hamas military facility but left no one hurt.
In another incident, a car ramming and stabbing attack occurred in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. The suspect was shot dead in the process.
The army claimed that during the Jenin attack, it had found terrorist hideouts, weapons caches, and an explosives-storage shaft.
The worst raid in the last five years, according to Qasem Benighader, a nurse in a hospital mortuary.
The army claimed that its troops had destroyed six explosives manufacturing sites, three operational situation rooms, and seized a sizable number of weaponry in Jenin.
It added that the weapons were found in trucks, a mosque, covert pits hidden in residential areas, and operational situation rooms.
“Cut off from the world”
The increase was described as “open war against the people of Jenin” by the Palestinian foreign ministry.
Doctors Without Borders, a medical aid organization, also criticized Israeli forces for using tear gas inside Jenin’s Khalil Suleiman Hospital, calling it “unacceptable.”
Mai al-Kaila, the minister of health for the Palestinian Authority, even claimed that the army had opened fire on Palestinians in the Jenin public hospital’s courtyard.
The minister informed reporters that the Ibn Sina hospital had also been invaded by Israeli forces. “Israel’s aggression reached its climax this afternoon when citizens were shot at directly in the courtyard of Jenin hospital wounding three, two of them seriously,” the minister added.
According to the Israeli army, there were reports on social media that soldiers had fired at a hospital.
The statement continued, “Terrorist organizations have used civilian areas as a hideout,” adding that “security forces are not currently aware of the reports.”
In the midst of a general strike, shops in Jenin were closed, leaving the nearly deserted streets littered with burning roadblocks and garbage.
“The most dangerous is what happened inside the camp, where there is no electricity, no water, and no roads for those who need to go to the hospital,” Jenin Mayor Nidal Abu Saleh said to AFP.
Since the attack started, 3,000 people have left their houses in the refugee camp, according to Kamal Abu al-Roub, the deputy governor of Jenin.
One of the people fleeing the demolished camp, Imad Jabarin, said: “All facets of life have been destroyed, there is no electricity, no communications, and we are somewhat cut off from the outside world.”
Attacks on Israelis and violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians have both increased recently in the northern West Bank.
Since early last year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has gotten worse, and under the Netanyahu administration, which includes allies on the extreme right, it has been worse still.
As “an initial response to crimes against our people in the Jenin camp,” Hamas praised the “heroic” Tel Aviv strike.
Police in Tel Aviv believe the driver purposefully ran over a number of pedestrians on a busy roadway before getting out to “stab civilians with a sharp object.”
According to police commander Yaakov Shabtai, the “terrorist” was a citizen of the West Bank who was killed by an armed bystander.
Strengthening communities
The violence in Jenin and Tel Aviv was condemned by the UN.
Volker Turk, the UN’s senior human rights official, stated that “the killing, maiming, and destruction of property must stop.”
Protesters torched tires close to the Israeli border barrier in the Gaza Strip, which Israel has encircled and blockaded.
Since the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has held the West Bank under occupation.
Around 490,000 Israelis presently reside there, with the exception of east Jerusalem, in settlements that are prohibited by international law.
The Palestinians, who aspire to have their own sovereign state, demand that Israel leave all of the territory it annexed in 1967 and remove all Jewish settlements.
However, Netanyahu has vowed to “strengthen settlements” and has shown no interest in resuming peace negotiations, which have been deadlocked since 2014.
According to an AFP count collated by official sources on both sides, at least 190 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, one Ukrainian, and one Italian have died this year.
On the Palestinian side, there are both combatants and civilians, and on the Israeli side, there are mainly civilians and three Arab minorities.