Israel begins biggest West Bank operation in decades: ‘Threat must be dealt with just like Gaza’
The Israeli army is planning forced evacuations of West Bank civilians, and the military operation in the territory is expected to last several days
The Israeli army launched its biggest operation in the occupied West Bank in over two decades early on 28 August, raiding Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas with hundreds of troops and launching airstrikes on the three cities, considered major hotbeds of resistance in the territory.
The Israeli army announced in a statement early on Wednesday that its forces “have now begun an operation to counter terrorism” in Jenin and Tulkarem. Israeli forces are also operating in the Faraa camp near Tubas.
Military sources told the Times of Israel that the operation is expected to last several days.
“We need to deal with the threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed. This is a war in every sense,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said via social media.
“Iran is working to establish a terror front against Israel in [the West Bank], according to the model it used in Lebanon and Gaza, by funding and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan,” he added.
Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said that Israel is planning the forced evacuation of West Bank neighborhoods as part of the operation. “The process will likely be long,” the daily’s correspondent, Yoav Zeyton, said.
Israel’s Kan channel reported that the operation is the largest since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, which took place in the occupied West Bank during the Second Intifada. It will reportedly involve thousands of soldiers.
Tel Aviv has dubbed the operation “Camps of Summer,” targeting the refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, including Tulkarem’s Nour Shams camp, the Jenin camp, and the Faraa camp.
“Terrorists in the northern West Bank - The gates of hell have opened. Either you surrender or you die,” said the Hebrew Channel 14 military correspondent Hallel Bitt.
The operation was launched after a blast in Tel Aviv last week, which was claimed by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement.
At least 10 Palestinians have been killed and several others injured.
At least three were killed in a drone strike on a vehicle southeast of Jenin, and another four were killed in a drone strike on the Faraa camp south of Tubas, according to WAFA news agency. Others were killed by Israeli gunfire during clashes.
Israeli forces have bulldozed the roads leading to several major hospitals in Jenin and Tulkarem and have threatened to raid the Khalil Suleiman Governmental Hospital in Jenin.
“The occupation forces are imposing a siege on medical institutions in the city, as they have blocked roads to Ibn Sina Hospital with earth mounds, and besieged the Martyr Khalil Suleiman Hospital and the headquarters of the Red Crescent,” said Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub.
Meanwhile, several Palestinian resistance factions are confronting Israeli troops across the three cities targeted by the massive Israeli raid.
“We have named the battle being fought by the heroes of Saraya Al-Quds on the combat axes in the West Bank as ‘The Horror of the Camps,’ where the enemy has mobilized its forces in search of an image of victory after its failure over the past 10 months in confronting the fighters of our people in Gaza and the West Bank,” the PIJ’s Quds Brigades said.
“With God’s help, our fighters are ready and will make the enemy taste the horror of the camps, and their soldiers will know the hell that awaits them,” it added.
The Tulkarem and Jenin branches of the Quds Brigades said on Wednesday morning that their fighters were engaged in fierce battles with the Israeli army in the two cities. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also took part in confronting Israeli forces in Jenin.
“Our fighters are confronting the invading occupation forces in Al-Faraa camp and are showering the enemy forces and military vehicles in the Beirut axis with heavy volleys of bullets,” the Quds Brigades’ Tubas Brigade said.
The Tulkarem Brigade said its fighters “targeted the [Israeli] snipers’ positions entrenched inside a house in Nour Shams Camp and showered them with bullets, achieving direct hits.”
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