Five dead during Israeli ‘anti-terror operation’ in West Bank

Tulkarem. The Israeli army said Thursday it had killed five Palestinian fighters holed up in a mosque, on the second day of a large-scale “anti-terrorist operation” in the occupied West Bank that the UN said was “fueling an already explosive situation.”

At least 14 people have been killed since the Israeli army launched its operation on Wednesday with bombings and raids with armored convoys in the cities of Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem and two refugee camps, where armed groups fighting against Israel’s occupation are very active.

Israeli military incursions are common in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by the Israeli army since 1967. However, it is unusual for them to take place simultaneously in several cities.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil on October 7, violence has escalated in the West Bank.

Israeli authorities had already claimed on Wednesday to have “eliminated” nine fighters. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported on Thursday that “15 people had been killed” since the raids began the day before.

The five Palestinians killed on Thursday in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem were “entrenched in a mosque,” according to the army.

The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed that Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, was killed during the raid in the town of Tulkarem. He became a hero to many Palestinians earlier this year when, after being declared dead in an Israeli raid, he made a surprise appearance at the funeral of fellow militants, where he was hoisted on the shoulders of cheering crowds.

Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks against Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more, the Israeli military added.

In Jenin, shaken by fighting, the streets were empty, said an AFP journalist.

The explosions also rocked Tulkarem, another AFP reporter said. Nearly half of the town is without water and in the Nur Shams camp there was none at all, said a municipal employee in Tulkarem, Hakim Abu Safiyeh. “The destruction is enormous,” he added.

Since October 7, at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by the Israeli army or settlers, according to the UN, and at least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or in army operations in Palestinian areas, according to official Israeli data.

“Annex the Dordoban Bank”

Under the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo peace accords, the Israeli military is not to enter autonomous areas under the exclusive control of the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, which partially administers the West Bank.

“I strongly condemn the deaths, especially of children, and call for an immediate end to these operations,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on social media.

EU foreign minister Josep Borrell warned that the Israeli operation “in the occupied West Bank must not constitute the premises for an extension of the war from Gaza, including large-scale destruction.”

Tulkarem governor Mostafa Taqataqa called the raid “a dangerous and unprecedented signal.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the military is seeking to “dismantle Iranian-Islamist terrorist infrastructure” in the West Bank.

The Islamic Jihad movement accused Israel of seeking to “annex the West Bank” with these operations.

Iran denounced “the brutal destruction of urban infrastructure and services” and urged the international community to take “immediate and effective measures to end the genocide of the Palestinian nation.”

No truce in Gaza

In the Gaza Strip, a territory ruled by Hamas since 2007, the Civil Defense reported eight deaths in new bombings in the north. A medical source told AFP that three Palestinians were killed in a drone attack in the south.

The Israeli military said it had struck some 40 “terrorist targets” in Gaza in the past 24 hours and eliminated “dozens of terrorists,” one of whom, according to the statement, participated in the October 7 attack.

That day, Islamist militants killed 1,199 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.

They also kidnapped 251 people, of whom 103 remain captive in Gaza, including 33 who the Israeli military declared dead.

In response, it launched a vast offensive that has already left 40,602 dead in Gaza, according to the Hamas government’s Health Ministry.

The war has plunged Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants into a catastrophic humanitarian situation.

The mediating countries between Israel and Hamas – Qatar, Egypt and the United States – are trying to achieve a truce and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians held in Israel.