Israel’s biggest military operation for years in the occupied West Bank continued for a second day Tuesday, leaving at least 10 Palestinians dead and forcing thousands to flee their homes as the government said it struck “with great strength” the militant stronghold.
The raid, launched under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government, targeted the northern city of Jenin and employed armoured vehicles, army bulldozers and drone strikes.
On Tuesday morning, shops were shuttered in Jenin, with very few people on the streets littered with debris and burned roadblocks from the previous day’s fighting.
Drones hummed overhead, an AFP reporter said.
In the city’s refugee camp – an urban community that was home to 18,000 people – multiple streets were ripped up leaving broken electricity cables, oil, and pools of water apparently after an Israeli anti-bomb bulldozer passed.
The Israeli army said its “counterterrorism activities” in Jenin had continued overnight into Tuesday, with forces acting to “neutralise” an underground shaft used to store explosives in the refugee camp.
“Furthermore, IDF soldiers located and dismantled two operational situation rooms belonging to terrorist organisations in the area,” the army said in a Tuesday statement, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
Prior to this operation Israel had already stepped up raids in the northern West Bank, which has seen a recent spate of attacks on Israelis as well as Jewish settler violence targeting Palestinians.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has worsened since last year, and escalated further under the Netanyahu coalition government that includes extreme-right allies.
“In the last five years, this is the worst raid,” Qasem Benighader, a nurse at a hospital morgue said, noting “many” patients with bullet wounds and injuries from explosives..
