Israel launches major military operation in West Bank

Israel launched what appears to be a major military operation in the West Bank early Monday, deploying hundreds of troops to Palestinian territory and conducting drone strikes on what it says are militant strongholds in and around Jenin.

The incursion, which resembles the large-scale deployment during the second Palestinian uprising two decades ago, has exacerbated tensions after more than a year of back-and-forth attacks.

Palestinian health officials said at least four Palestinians were killed in the drone strikes, and Palestinian media reports suggest the Israeli military operation cut off electricity for many residents.

In another incident, a 21-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the ministry said.

It comes at a time of growing domestic pressure in Israel to respond harshly to a series of attacks on Israeli settlers – including a shooting last week that left four people dead.

Palestinian militants engage in a firefight with the Israeli army in Jenin, West Bank, July 3, 2023. The Israel Defense Forces announced on July 3 that they have launched a large-scale operation in Jenin

A person is carried on a stretcher after a Palestinian is killed during an Israeli military operation, in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 3, 2023

Smoke rises from homes in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on July 3, 2023, following an Israeli attack

Smoke rises during an Israeli military strike on the militant stronghold of Jenin in the occupied West Bank

View of tires set on fire in a street after a Palestinian was killed during an Israeli military operation, in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, July 3, 2023

Paramedics take an injured man to a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on July 3, 2023, after an Israeli strike. The Israeli army said on July 3, 2023, it attacked targets in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin in a “widespread counter-terrorism effort” that killed at least four people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, an army spokesman, said the operation began just after 1 a.m. with an airstrike on a building used by militants to plan attacks. He said the purpose of the operation was to destroy and seize weapons.

“We don’t intend to hold out,” he said. “We act against specific targets.”

He said a brigade-sized force – about 2,000 soldiers – took part in the operation and that military drones had launched a series of strikes to clear the way for ground forces.

While Israel has launched isolated airstrikes in the West Bank in recent weeks, Hecht said Monday’s string of attacks marked an unprecedented escalation since 2006 — the end of the Palestinian insurgency.

While Israel described the attack as a precise operation, videos on Palestinian social media showed a large wisp of white smoke billowing from a crowded area, with a mosque minaret nearby. Other videos showed an injured man being taken to hospital on a stretcher, while another was carried inside by a group of men.

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the military blocked roads within the camp, seized houses and buildings and deployed snipers on rooftops. The agency also said that the army cut electricity in large parts of the camp and that army bulldozers caused damage to property.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday morning at least four Palestinians were killed and more than 20 injured, three of them critical. Hecht said as many as seven militants were presumed dead.

Israeli military vehicles maneuver during a raid in Jenin, West Bank, July 3, 2023

Smoke rises from homes in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on July 3, 2023, following an Israeli attack. The Israeli army said on July 3, 2023 it attacked targets in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank July 3, 2023

Jenin has been a focal point as Israeli-Palestinian violence has escalated since the spring of 2022. Monday’s raid came two weeks after another violent confrontation in Jenin.

“There’s been a dynamic around Jenin over the last year,” said Hecht, defending Monday’s tactic. “It’s been getting more intense all the time.”

But there may also have been political considerations. Leading members of Israel’s far-right government, dominated by West Bank settlers and their supporters, have called for a broader military response to the region’s ongoing violence.

“Proud of our heroes on all fronts and especially this morning of our soldiers operating in Jenin,” tweeted National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultra-nationalist who recently called on Israel to kill “thousands” of militants if necessary. “Praying for their success.”

Monday’s deaths bring the death toll of Palestinians killed this year in the West Bank to 131, part of a more-than-year-long spike in violence in that area, which has seen some of the worst bloodshed in nearly two decades.

The outbreak of violence escalated last year after a spate of Palestinian attacks prompted Israel to step up its raids on the West Bank.

Israel says the raids are designed to beat back militants. The Palestinians say such violence is inevitable in the absence of any political process with Israel and with increasing settlement building in the West Bank and violence by extremist settlers. They see the intensification of the Israeli military presence in the area as an entrenchment of Israel’s 56-year indefinite occupation of the area.

Israel says most of the dead are militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the raids and people not involved in the clashes have also been killed.

At least 24 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks since the beginning of this year.

Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians seek those areas for their hoped-for independent state.