2023-07-04 01:58:24
Residents evacuate the Jenin refugee camp during an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank on July 3, 2023. JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP
The Israeli army’s largest incursion into the West Bank in several years has already pushed thousands of Palestinians out of the refugee camp in Jenin, a city in the northern occupied West Bank rocked by shootings and explosions for more than a year. daytime.
“About 3,000 people have already left the camp”, declared Monday evening July 3 to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the deputy governor of Jenin, Kamal Abou Al-Roub, specifying that measures were taken to welcome them in schools and other premises in the city of Jenin. Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees, confirmed that residents were leaving the camp – home to some 18,000 Palestinians – a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups repeatedly targeted by Israeli operations .
According to a latest report from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, nine Palestinians were killed in Jenin, and 100 others injured – including twenty in serious condition – during this vast military campaign which mobilized hundreds of Israeli soldiers and made particular use of of drones.
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“Our forces have entered the nest of terrorists in Jenin (…) they are destroying command centers and seizing a considerable amount of weapons”, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Palestinians were throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, under a sky blackened by the smoke of explosions and burning barricades, noted an AFP correspondent.
“There is aerial bombardment and a ground invasion”told AFP Mahmoud Al-Saadi, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Jenin. “Several houses and sites have been bombarded (…) Smoke rises from everywhere. » The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced “an open war against the population in Jenin. »
“Worst raid in five years”
The Israeli operation comes as the northern occupied West Bank has seen a recent spate of attacks on Israelis as well as anti-Palestinian violence by Jewish settlers.
On Monday, the Israeli army reported clashes between soldiers and gunmen at a mosque in the Jenin camp, adding that weapons and explosives were later found there. She also said she targeted “a terrorist infrastructure” and one “operations center” serving as a command center “Jenin Brigade”a local armed group.
“I saw the bulldozers in the camp which destroyed houses”, told AFP, Badr Shagoul, a resident. At the city hospital, an AFP reporter saw bodies lying in the morgue, some for hours, as relatives waited for the funeral fighting to end. “We received many wounded, hit by explosives from the sky, many also wounded by bullets”says Qasem Benighader, a 35-year-old nurse. “This is the worst raid for five years”.
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Military spokesman Richard Hecht claimed that the military “acted against specific targets” and “the air strike, right in the heart of the camp [de Jénine]took them by surprise”adding that there was no specific timetable for the current operation.
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The situation is “catastrophic”deplores Mahmoud Hawashin, resident of the Jenin camp. “If more Palestinian blood will flow, there will also be more Israeli blood flowing. »
“All options are on the table to strike the enemy”warned Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas leader Ishmael Haniyeh, denouncing an Israeli operation ” brutal “.
Support from Washington
Abroad, neighboring Jordan has denounced “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, as well as of Israel’s obligations as an occupying power”. The Emirates, another Arab country with diplomatic ties to Israel, called on Israel to “refrain from any action that exacerbates tensions (…) and leads to the perpetuation of the cycle of violence. » The Arab League announced an emergency meeting on Tuesday.
“We support Israel’s security and its right to defend its people”said a spokesman for the US State Department in Washington, adding that he was “imperative to take all possible precautions to avoid the death of civilians”.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, a man was killed by the Israeli army on Monday in Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has killed at least 186 Palestinians, 25 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian since the beginning of the year, according to an AFP count established from official sources.
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