‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 332: West Bank resistance attacks carried out in Hebron
As the Israeli assault on the northern West Bank enters its sixth day, Palestinians launched two attacks on Israelis in Hebron to the south. Meanwhile, the death of six Israeli captives in Gaza caused widespread anti-Netanyahu protests in Tel Aviv.
Casualties
- 40,786+ killed and at least 94,224 wounded in the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health as of September 2, 2024. At least 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble.
- 681+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank, 5,700 wounded since October 7, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health as of September 2, 2024.
Key Developments
- Israel kills 48 Palestinians, injures 70 others in Gaza in past 24 hours in three separate massacres of families, says Gaza-based health ministry.
- Israel kills 29 Palestinians, wounds 121 in West Bank since beginning of “Operation Summer Camps” last Wednesday.
- Israeli army invasion of northern West Bank cities enters sixth day as residents of Jenin and Jenin refugee camp displaced, while siege of Tulkarem and Tulkarem refugee camps continues.
- Six Israeli captives in Gaza found dead in Rafah tunnel on Sunday, causing uproar in Israel at Netanyahu recalcitrance in reaching ceasefire and captive exchange deal.
- Largest Israeli labor federation, Histadrut, calls for general strike on Monday amid widespread protests in Tel Aviv calling on Netanyahu to conclude ceasefire deal. On Monday, general strike is observed in commercial centers and leading to shortening of school hours and temporary closure of Ben Gurion Airport.
- Former Palestinian Presidential Guard, Muhannad al-Asoud, shoots and kills three Israeli police officers on Sunday near Tarqumiya checkpoint outside Hebron.
- UNRWA in partnership with WHO and UNICEF begins Polio vaccination campaign in Gaza for children under age of 10.
- UK suspends some arms shipments to Israel, citing “clear risk” such weapons will be used for “serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
‘Operation Summer Camps’ Day 6
The Israeli assault on the northern West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas has entered its sixth day, with the Israeli siege on the three cities persisting despite the halting of some operations in Tulkarem and Tubas. Dubbed “Operation Summer Camps,” the Israeli offensive has killed 29 Palestinians in the northern West Bank and injured 121 others since Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The second day of the assault saw the assassination of elusive wanted resistance fighter Abu Shuja‘, the commander of the Tulkarem Brigade in Nur Shams refugee camp. Since then, the Israeli army withdrew most of its forces from Tulkarem on Thursday night, including Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps. The raid left a trail of destruction in its wake, including widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure and private property. The Tulkarem municipality announced that the city’s water lines had been damaged by Israeli forces, forcing the municipality to temporarily shut down the water supply ahead of repairs.
The Israeli army also withdrew from al-Far’a refugee camp in Tubas after killing four people and leaving behind destruction similar in scale to that which was observed in Tulkarem.
In Jenin, the Israeli raid has continued unabated, as bulldozers continue to tear up streets in neighborhoods and skirmishes break out intermittently with resistance fighters. Israeli forces have caused the displacement of numerous Jenin residents, forcing them to evacuate their homes as operations continue. Other residents have been trapped in their homes and cut off from electricity and water.
“We were cut off from the world, with no communication or internet, and we didn’t know anything about what was happening,” a Jenin resident told Middle East Eye.
Journalists were also targeted by live Israeli fire while covering the invasion of Jenin refugee camp, while Israeli forces continued to lay siege to Jenin’s hospitals, hindering the movement of medical personnel and conducting extensive searches of ambulances entering and leaving the hospitals.
In Hebron in the southern West Bank, three Palestinian attacks against Israeli targets have caused the Israeli army to besiege the Hebron governorate.
On Friday, a pair of apparently coordinated car bombs detonated near the Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion. The first car to explode was at a gas station near the Gush Etzion junction, while the second blew up inside the settlement of Karmei Tzur. The two Palestinians who were responsible for the twin car bombings were shot dead near the sites of the explosions. On Monday, Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombings.
On Sunday, a former member of the PA Presidential Guard shot and killed three Israeli police officers in Tarqumiya near Hebron. The fighter who carried out the attack, later identified as Muhannad al-Asoud from the village of Idna near Hebron, abandoned his car and fled on foot. Local media sources claimed that al-Asoud had attempted to turn himself into the PA Security Forces but was turned away. Mondoweiss has been unable to independently verify this claim.
Al-Asoud sought shelter in an abandoned building in Hebron, where Israeli forces surrounded the house and engaged in a firefight before launching rocket-propelled grenades at the house, killing al-Asoud. His body was then retrieved from the house and confiscated by the Israeli army.
Hamas put out a statement praising the attack and calling upon all Palestinians in the West Bank who have weapons at their disposal to engage in similar attacks and to “fire on the occupiers.”
Widespread Israeli protests following discovery of six dead captives
Six Israeli captives held in Gaza were found dead by the Israeli army in a Rafah tunnel on Sunday, sparking outrage from Israeli opposition figures who blamed Netanyahu for their deaths. The largest Israeli labor federation, the Histadrut, called for a general strike to take place on Monday, hoping to apply “economic pressure” on the Israeli government to secure the release of the Israeli captives in Gaza by signing a ceasefire deal with Hamas. Hundreds of thousands of protesters reportedly took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities on Sunday and Monday, according to local Israeli media sources, shutting down intersections and engaging in mass walkouts at workplaces, including schools and municipalities.
An Israeli court in Tel Aviv ordered the general strike to end by 2:30 p.m. local time, following the Israeli government’s filing of an injunction against it.
The protests have been met with backlash from the Netanyahu government, which accuses the Israeli opposition of playing into Hamas’s objectives of holding onto the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza border with Egypt.
The Israeli protests come amid Netanyahu’s continued recalcitrance and refusal to accept a ceasefire deal that would involve an Israeli withdrawal from the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors, the latter of which he claims is Hamas’s main “oxygen pipeline” through which the movement would be able to rearm. Over the past several weeks, ceasefire talks have stalled due to Netanyahu’s insistence on holding onto these two corridors, which has been condemned by Israeli war minister Yoav Gallant as endangering the lives of the Israeli captives held in Gaza.
War on Gaza continues
Israeli forces continued to carry out bombings across the Gaza Strip. Over the last 24 hours, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 48 Palestinians and injured 70 others. The airstrikes resulted in three separate massacres of families, the majority of whom are women and children, the Gaza-based Ministry of Health said.
On Sunday, the Israeli army targeted security personnel “responsible for protecting and facilitating the delivery of international aid into northern Gaza, killing at least 7,” local journalists reported.
The incident comes nearly a week after the UN’s World Food Programme paused staff operations in Gaza after being shot at by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint, “despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach,” according to the WFP.
“For months, Israel has been directly targeting aid convoys, security and civil police officers, and international organization members working to deliver aid,” Maha Hussaini, Strategy Director at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said on X on Sunday, adding that this policy has exacerbated “the starvation of the population and [has] foster[ed] a state of chaos.”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillippe Lazzarini announced that the first phase of the campaign to vaccinate children under the age of 10 in Gaza against polio had begun. The UNRWA vaccination drive commenced on Sunday following reports that fighting had paused “temporarily” in specific areas where the vaccine was being administered.
“This is a race against time to reach just over 600,000 children across the Gaza Strip in the coming days,” Lazzarini said on X.
The vaccination campaign was carried out by UNRWA in partnership with UNICEF and the WHO.
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