JENIN, Palestinian Territories, July 4, 2023 (AFP) – Israeli forces began withdrawing from a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, an army spokesman said, after nearly two days of a large-scale military operation in the area that killed 12 Palestinians.
The raid on Jenin refugee camp, launched early Monday under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government, employed hundreds of troops as well as drone strikes and army bulldozers that ripped up streets.
Elsewhere a car ramming and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv had wounded seven people before the suspect was shot dead on the second day of Israel’s biggest military operation in years in the occupied West Bank.
“Israeli forces have started withdrawing from Jenin camp,” an army spokesman told AFP late on Tuesday night, without offering further details.
Hours earlier explosions had been heard from the camp and a drone hovered overhead, an AFP correspondent reported.
Palestinian health ministry said two Palestinians were killed on Tuesday, taking the total death toll to 12 since the start of the raid that displaced from their homes.
“In the last five years, this is the worst raid,” said Qasem Benighader, a nurse at a hospital morgue.
The army said its forces had dismantled six explosives manufacturing facilities, three operational situation rooms in Jenin and confiscated large quantities of weapons.
“The weapons were located in hideouts, a mosque, pits concealed in civilian areas, operational situation rooms, and in vehicles,” it said.
The army said it had uncovered militant hideouts, arms depots and underground shafts used to store explosives.
– ‘Cut off from world’ –
During a visit to an army base near Jenin, Netanyahu vowed to “uproot terrorism”.
“We will not allow Jenin to go back to being a city of refuge for terrorism.”
The Palestinian foreign ministry labelled the escalation “open war against the people of Jenin”.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders also condemned Israeli forces for firing tear gas inside Khalil Suleiman hospital in Jenin, calling it “unacceptable”.
On Tuesday, shops in Jenin were shuttered amid a general strike and the near-empty streets littered with debris and burned roadblocks.
The army said it does not intend to stay in the camp housing about 18,000 people but was ready for prolonged fighting.
“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 hospital,” Jenin mayor Nidal Abu Saleh told AFP.
Around 3,000 people had fled their homes in the refugee camp, said deputy governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Roub.
Imad Jabarin, one of those leaving in the rubbles-strewn camp, said “all aspects of life have been destroyed, there is no electricity and no communications… we are cut off from the world to some extent”.
The northern West Bank has seen a recent spate of attacks on Israelis as well as Jewish settler violence targeting Palestinians.
The Israel-Palestinian conflict has worsened since early last year, and escalated further under the Netanyahu government that includes extreme-right allies.
Palestinian militant group Hamas, meanwhile, praised the “heroic” attack in Tel Aviv as “an initial response to crimes against our people in the Jenin camp”.
The driver in Tel Aviv was thought to have intentionally hit several pedestrians on a shopping street before getting out of the vehicle to “stab civilians with a sharp object”, police said.
The “terrorist”, a West Bank resident, was shot dead by an armed civilian passerby, said police chief Yaakov Shabtai.
– ‘Strengthen settlements’ –
The United Nations decried the violence in Tel Aviv and Jenin.
“The killing, maiming and the destruction of property must stop,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said.
The United States said its ally Israel had a right to “defend its people against… terrorist groups” but called for protection of civilians.
In the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, protesters burned tyres near the border fence with Israel.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is now home to around 490,000 Israelis in settlements considered illegal under international law.
The Palestinians, who seek their own independent state, want Israel to withdraw from all land it seized in 1967 and to dismantle all Jewish settlements.
Netanyahu, however, has pledged to “strengthen settlements” and expressed no interest in reviving peace talks, which have been moribund since 2014.
At least 190 Palestinians, 25 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian have been killed this year, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources from both sides.
They include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians and three members of the Arab minority.