Raid in Jenin: new strikes between Gaza and Israel, Paris and Washington call for calm

by time news

Concern reigns after the resurgence of violence between the micro-territory of Gaza and Israel since Thursday. The Israeli army carried out strikes on the Palestinian strip on Friday, in response to rocket fire attributed to Gaza, and following the deadliest Israeli raid in years in the occupied West Bank.

Israel, which holds Hamas in power in Gaza responsible for the firing of projectiles from this territory, announced that it had carried out at least two series of night strikes there against infrastructures of the Islamist movement.

No casualties have been reported in the territory under Israeli blockade since 2007. Most of the rockets fired were intercepted by the Israeli air defense system.

An operation against a group suspected of targeting Israel

Palestinian armed groups had vowed to respond to Thursday’s Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, in which nine Palestinians were killed. Both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad took part in this response, Khaled el-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad official, said in a speech Friday, welcoming “unity in the ranks of the resistance”.

The operation in the Jenin camp targeted the Islamic Jihad group, which was planning an attack in Israel, according to Israeli sources. A total of nine Palestinians died in the raid. A tenth Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in Al-Ram, near Ramallah, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.

A UN panel of experts said the death toll was the highest in a single Israeli operation in the West Bank since 2005. “We deplore the latest violent attack by the Israeli army against the Jenin refugee camp” , the experts said in a statement on Friday, who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations.

Warnings from Paris and Washington

France urged Israel and the Palestinians “to refrain from fueling the escalation” and the United States said it was “deeply concerned about the escalation of violence”.

The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, is due to visit Israel and the West Bank on Monday and Tuesday to insist, according to Washington, on “the urgent need to take de-escalation measures”.

Washington also said it regretted the Palestinian Authority’s decision, in response to the raid, to end security cooperation with Israel, a first since 2020, judging “very important that the parties maintain, even deepen” this cooperation. In addition, the UN has officially called for an end to the “endless cycle of violence” in the area.

Israel prepares ‘for all scenarios’

Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila further accused Israeli forces of firing tear gas into the pediatric unit of a hospital in Jenin during their operation, which the army denied. Israel “is not looking for escalation” but is preparing “for all scenarios,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday, according to a statement.

The Israeli army, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, carries out almost daily operations through this Palestinian territory, particularly in the areas of Jenin and Nablus (north), strongholds of armed Palestinian factions.

The Jenin camp, which dates from 1953, is home to more than 23,000 refugees according to Unrwa, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees. In May 2022, Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, star of Al Jazeera, was killed there while covering an Israeli raid.

Thursday’s deaths bring to 30 the number of Palestinians, civilians or members of armed groups, killed since the beginning of the year in violence with Israeli forces or civilians.

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