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Palestinians say nine killed in Israeli raid on Jenin refugee camp Israeli forces kill nine Palestinians during West Bank raid
(about 4 hours later)
Officials also accuse Israeli forces of using teargas inside children’s ward of a hospital in West Bank About 20 more people injured in four-hour gun battle at Jenin refugee camp, in deadliest day in territory for years
An Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank killed nine Palestinians including an elderly woman, Palestinian officials have said. They also accused the forces of using teargas inside a hospital’s children’s ward. Israeli forces have killed nine Palestinians during a raid in the north of the occupied West Bank in the deadliest single day in the territory in years.
The health ministry said that in addition to the nine dead, multiple people were wounded. A 60-year-old woman was among the dead, the Palestinian health ministry said, and about 20 more people were seriously injured in the violence on Thursday morning. At least three of those killed were associated with armed groups, according to Palestinian authorities.
In a separate statement, the Palestinian health minister, Mai al-Kaila, said: “Occupation forces stormed Jenin government hospital and intentionally fired teargas canisters at the paediatric department.” Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers arrived at daybreak at several entrances of the Jenin refugee camp, a militant stronghold in the north of the Palestinian territory, said Sakir Khader, a Palestinian-Dutch filmmaker at the scene. Armed Palestinians shot at an Israeli armoured vehicle, at which point the IDF returned fire and a fierce four-hour gun battle ensued, he said.
She described the situation in the refugee camp as “critical” and said Israeli forces were preventing ambulances from reaching the wounded. “I was stuck in the middle of the firefight for hours. It was crazy. There were snipers and drones and they used a bulldozer to block off a street. It destroyed lots of cars and a public meeting spot.
Kaila called for an urgent meeting with the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross over the events in Jenin. “At the hospital there are mothers looking for their sons … Everything is still very tense. I have been coming to Palestine all my life and I have never seen something like this.”
Israel’s army declined to comment when asked about the minister’s teargas allegation. The military has said only that its “forces are operating in Jenin”. The IDF said in a statement that it conducted the unusual daytime operation because of intelligence suggesting a cell in the camp linked to the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad was planning to carry out imminent attacks against Israelis.
Jenin’s deputy governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, said residents were living in a “real state of war”. He said: “The Israeli army is destroying everything and shooting at everything that moves.” The army also denied firing teargas at a nearby hospital after an unverified video emerged showing children in the paediatric ward choking and coughing. Teargas had probably wafted inside the hospital from the clashes nearby, it said. There were no Israeli casualties.
The Palestinian presidency said Thursday’s raid on Jenin was happening “under international silence”. “This is what encourages the occupation government to commit massacres against our people in full view of the world,” said Nabil Abu Rudeinah, a spokesperson for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. Thursday’s bloodshed in Jenin is the latest development in Operation Breakwater, a nine-month-old Israeli military campaign that has targeted Palestinian factions in the northern West Bank city and nearby Nablus on a near-nightly basis. It was launched in response to a wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks last spring.
Thursday’s fatalities bring the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank so far this year to 29, including fighters and civilians, most of whom were shot by Israeli forces. The operation has contributed to the highest death toll in the occupied West Bank since the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, concluded in 2005, with about 250 Palestinians and 30 Israelis killed last year, according to rights groups. Another 29 Palestinians, among them fighters and civilians, have been killed so far in 2023.
Last year was the deadliest year in the Palestinian territory since UN records began in 2005. The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, declared three days of mourning and ordered flags at half mast. A general strike was also declared on Thursday across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, and by lunchtime, hundreds of people had headed towards Israeli military checkpoints to protest.
At least 26 Israelis and 200 Palestinians were killed across Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2022, the majority in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally from official sources. At the Beit El checkpoint near Ramallah, soldiers fired teargas at the demonstrators, some of whom threw stones and lit tyres on fire.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 six-day war. “It is the same story again and again. The occupation does not stop killing us, so we will not stop resisting,” said Nour, a 22-year-old student who wrapped her face in a black and white keffiyeh to protect against the teargas.
Tensions in the decades-long conflict have soared as a result of the escalating violence, and recent polling suggests that support for the dormant peace process has reached an all-time low among Israelis and Palestinians.
The recent election of the most rightwing government in Israeli history is expected to inflame an already volatile situation.
Members of the Israeli coalition have pledged to accelerate the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank – a practice that negates the possibility of a two-state solution – and loosen the rules of engagement for soldiers and police.