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Israel’s military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin has ended, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday, as the United Nations expressed deep concern over violence in the city’s refugee camp.
“All forces have left Jenin. We have finished the operation – its objectives have been achieved,” IDF Chief Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told Israel’s military radio station Galei Tzahal.
At least 12 people, ranging in age from 16 to 23, were killed and more injured after Israeli forces launched major operations in the camp this week, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted Palestinian terrorists and one of its soldiers was killed in the operation.
Earlier on Wednesday, the IDF said it had also carried out strikes in the Gaza Strip, in response to five rockets fired into Israeli territory, all of which were intercepted.
UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, reported that at least three children have lost their lives in Jenin, while many others have sustained injuries amid the ongoing clashes.
In an interview with CNN when the death toll reached 11, Hagari claimed that no “non-combatants” were killed during the invasion.
“We are now at the end of achieving our goals, inside Jenin, fighting terrorism and breaking the terror in the Jenin Camp,” Hagari said. “We have achieved our objectives and when we achieve our objectives the forces will be released from the camp.”
Video obtained by CNN shows Israeli military vehicles beginning to withdraw from the occupied West Bank city, while other vehicles are seen entering.
Even after the IDF’s initial announcement that its forces had begun to withdraw, military operations appeared to continue late Tuesday with the IDF saying an armed terrorist cell had been targeted. in an IDF plane in a cemetery outside the city of Jenin.
The operation was carried out because the armed men “pose a threat to the security forces coming out of the Jenin Camp,” the IDF added.
In Gaza early Wednesday, the IDF said it carried out a targeted airstrike on an “underground weapons production site” used by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. A site involved in the production of raw materials for Hamas rockets was also targeted, it said.
“This attack constitutes damage to the ability of the terrorist organization Hamas to strengthen and arm itself,” the IDF said on Twitter.
Gaza, an isolated enclave on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, lies southwest of the landlocked West Bank.
Earlier, Hamas said a car attack and stabbing in Tel Aviv on Tuesday was carried out by one of its fighters, and was a response to Israel’s operation in Jenin.
Eight people were wounded in an attack near a shopping center in Tel Aviv, Israeli officials said, which saw the attacker emerge from a crashed car and continue stabbing civilians.
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UN human rights chief Volker Türk called for an end to “killing, maiming and destruction of property.
“The recent operation in the Occupied West Bank and the car crash attack in Tel Aviv are worryingly highlighting an all-too-familiar pattern of events: that violence only breeds more violence,” a statement said. can be read.
“The scale of the ongoing operation of the Israeli Security Forces in Jenin, including the use of repeated airstrikes, along with the destruction of property, raises many serious issues in relation to international human rights norms and standards. , including the protection and respect of the right to life,” he added.
Türk said “some of the methods and weapons used in ISF operations [Israeli Security Forces] in the Jenin Refugee Camp and the surrounding areas are more often involved in the conduct of armed conflict, rather than law enforcement.”
He called on Israeli forces to “follow international human rights standards,” which “will not change just because the goal of the operation is stated to be ‘counter-terrorism.'”
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said in a statement early Wednesday that the “Palestinian people have scored a great victory by defeating the aggression against Jenin and its camp.”
“The Jenin Battalion and the brave fighters bravely and heroically led this great victory,” the group’s secretary general Ziyad al-Nakhala said. “I call for national unity to strengthen the stability of the Jenin camp so that it remains an inspiring speech for revolution, opposition, jihad and resistance.”
A police spokesman described the car crash on Pinchas Rosen Street in north Tel Aviv as a “terror attack,” and told CNN that the driver was killed by an armed civilian.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack, saying “whoever thinks that such an attack will prevent us from continuing our fight against terrorism is mistaken. He is not familiar with the spirit of the State of Israel, our government, our citizens and our soldiers.
In Jenin, a total of 117 people were injured in the refugee camp due to the ongoing IDF operation, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Tuesday. Among these injuries, there were 12 reported serious and 33 moderate. The IDF identified civilians among the wounded.
Raneen Sawafta/Reuters
Israeli troops have begun to withdraw but the situation remains volatile.
Thousands more were left without their homes, after evacuating overnight to avoid damage. Damage to the camp was extensive, with some roads destroyed as Israeli bulldozers disarmed IEDs, and extensive damage to homes and vehicles as a result of the clashes.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, called on the United States to help de-escalate the situation, in an interview with CNN’s Eleni Giokos on Tuesday.
“The Americans must intervene because Israel must be stopped by the Americans, immediately. Otherwise, the situation is very dangerous, very dangerous for them and for us,” in an interview with CNN anchor Eleni Giokos on Tuesday.
Rudeineh said that “the Israeli army is attacking Palestinian citizens” and added, “What happened yesterday was absolutely dangerous.”
