Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X yesterday that the Israeli army has been operating in full force since Tuesday night in the Jenin and Tulkarma refugee camps in the West Bank to “destroy the Iranian and Islamist terror infrastructures established there.” He accused Iran of supporting Palestinian armed groups in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, that it is trying to open a “second front” against Israel in the West Bank.
“We will address this threat with the same determination we had when addressing the terror infrastructure in Gaza. This includes the temporary evacuation of the Palestinian population and other necessary means. This is a war and we must win,” the minister said.
Israel’s armed forces conduct near-daily operations in the West Bank in parallel with the war that began after the October 7 invasion of Israel. Their purpose is said to be efforts to limit the activity of armed Islamist militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 652 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the war in Gaza began 10 months ago. Many of them have been fighters, but some are just civilians. The UN said last week that more than 600 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank since October 7. 589 were killed by the Israeli army, 11 – residents of Jewish settlements.
Much of the West Bank is under the control of the Israeli army, with limited Palestinian Authority control in some areas. The West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians and more than half a million residents of Jewish settlements.
The BBC, citing local journalists, reports that this week’s Israel Defense Forces operation in the West Bank is as extensive and intense as it has been since the second Palestinian uprising (intifada) two decades ago. There have also been reports of military activities by the Israeli army in the cities of Nablus and Tubas and shootings with Palestinian fighters in the urban refugee camps.
2024-08-29 06:43:23