Israeli forces hit the city of Jenin with drone strikes on
Monday in one of the biggest West Bank operations in 20 years, killing at least
eight Palestinians and involving hundreds of troops in sporadic gun battles
that continued into the evening, reports Reuters.
Gunfire and explosions were heard throughout the day as
clashes continued between Israeli troops and fighters from the Jenin Brigades,
a unit made up of militant groups based in the city's crowded refugee camp.
"What
is going on in the refugee camp is real war," said Palestinian ambulance
driver Khaled Alahmad. "There were strikes from the sky targeting the
camp, every time we drive in, around five to seven ambulances and we come back
full of injured."
At
times during the morning, at least six drones could be seen circling over the
city and the adjoining camp, a densely packed area housing around 14,000
refugees in less than half a square kilometre.
The camp has been at the heart of an escalation of violence
across the West Bank that has triggered mounting alarm from
Washington to the Arab world, without so far opening the way to a resumption of
political negotiations that have been stalled for almost a decade.
For more than a year, army raids in cities such as Jenin
have become routine, while there have been a series of deadly attacks by
Palestinians against Israelis and rampages by Jewish settler mobs against
Palestinian villages.
The Israeli military said its forces struck a building that
served as a command centre for fighters from the Jenin Brigades with what it
called precise drone strikes using small payloads. It described the operation
as an extensive counter-terrorism effort aimed at destroying infrastructure and
disrupting militants from using the refugee camp as a base.
As the
operation proceeded, Israeli armoured bulldozers ploughed up roads in the camp
to dig up concealed improvised explosive devices, cutting water and electricity
supplies, the Jenin municipality said as residents described soldiers breaking
through the walls to pass from house to house.
"Nothing is safe in the camp. They dug up the roads
with bulldozers. Why? What did the camp do?" said Hussein Zeidan, 67, as
he recovered from his wounds in hospital.
In
Washington, the State Department said it was closely tracking the situation in
Jenin. A State Department spokesperson said it was imperative that all possible
precautions be taken to prevent the loss of civilian lives.
An Israeli military spokesman said the operation would last
as long as needed and suggested forces could remain for an extended period.
"It could take hours, but it could also take days. We are focused on our
goals," he said.
Until June 21, when it carried out a strike near
Jenin, the Israeli military had not used drone strikes in the West Bank since
2006. But the growing scale of the violence and the pressure on ground forces
meant such tactics may continue, a military spokesman said.
"We're really stretched," a spokesman told
journalists. "It's because of the scale. And again, from our perception,
this will minimize friction," he said, adding that the strikes were based
on "precise intelligence".
Monday's
operation, involving a force described as brigade-size - suggesting around
1,000-2,000 troops - was intended to help break the safe haven mindset of the
camp, which has become a hornets nest, the spokesman said.
Its apparent scale underlined the importance of the Jenin
camp in violence that has further exposed the impotence of the Palestinian
Authority to impose its writ over towns in the West Bank, where it holds
nominal governance powers.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was suspending
contacts with Israel and called for international protection for our people. UN
Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland said he was talking with all parties to
de-escalate and ensure humanitarian access.
Hundreds of fighters from militant groups including Hamas,
Islamic Jihad and Fatah are based in the camp, which was set up 70 years ago to
house refugees in the aftermath of the 1948 war that accompanied the creation
of Israel. The fighters have an array of weapons and a growing arsenal of
explosive devices.
The Israeli military, which regularly accuses militant
groups of basing fighters in civilian areas, said troops seized an improvised
rocket launcher and hit a weapons production and explosives storage facility
with hundreds of devices ready to be used as well as radios and other
equipment.
It said it had also found weapons in a mosque where fighters
had barricaded themselves inside in an underground section.
It was unclear whether the incursion would trigger a wider
response from Palestinian factions, drawing in militant groups in the Gaza
Strip, the coastal enclave controlled by militant Islamist group Hamas.
Saleh Al-Arouri, accused by Israel of leading the Hamas
military wing in the West Bank, told Aqsa TV that fighters in Jenin should try
to capture Israeli soldiers.
"Our fighters will rise from everywhere, and you will
never know where the new fighter will come from," he said.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said his forces were closely
monitoring the conduct of our enemies, with the defence establishment ready for
all scenarios.
Following the last major raid in Jenin in June, Palestinian
gunmen killed four Israelis near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. That led
to a rampage by mobs of settlers in Palestinian villages and towns.
Israel
captured the West Bank, which the Palestinians see as the core of a future
independent state, in the 1967 Middle East war. Following decades of conflict,
peace talks that had been brokered by the United States have been frozen since
2014.
