Israeli soldiers operate during a raid in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near the city of Tulkarem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Aug. 28, 2024. (Credit: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP)
Israel launched a large-scale military operation Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, where its army said it killed nine Palestinian fighters, while the nearly 11-month Gaza war showed no signs of abating.
In the West Bank in the early hours of Wednesday, the Israeli military launched a series of coordinated raids across four West Bank cities — Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem. Columns of Israeli armored vehicles entered two refugee camps in the latter two cities.
By midday, soldiers had sealed off entrances to nearby towns and camps, according to AFP photographers, as gunfire and explosions rang out from within the camps. Israeli bulldozers ripped up asphalt from the streets, with the army claiming they were searching for roadside bombs.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces killed nine people and wounded 15 others in the raids, revising its previous toll of 10 dead.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia and headed home to "follow up on the latest developments in light of the Israeli aggression on the northern West Bank," Palestinian official media reported.
The Israeli army said it had killed nine Palestinian "terrorists," with no casualties so far on its side.
Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani claimed that "soldiers encountered explosives and were exchanging fire with militants," declining to say how many soldiers were involved or for how long the operation would last.
The operation, he added, was not "extremely different (from usual army activity in the area) or special."
'This is war'
Foreign Minister Israel Katz had a different take, however, saying the military was "operating in full force since last night" in a bid to "dismantle Iranian-Islamic terror infrastructures" in the area.
In a post on X, he accused Iran of seeking to "establish an eastern front against Israel" based on the "model" for Gaza and Lebanon, where it backs Hamas and Hezbollah, respectively.
"We must address this threat with the same determination used against terror infrastructures in Gaza, including temporary evacuation of residents and any necessary measures," Katz said.
"This is a war, and we must win it."
Since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 650 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, compared to only 19 on the Israeli side.
Last week, the Israeli army announced it had killed a senior Palestinian militant in Lebanon, accusing him of "directing attacks and smuggling weapons" to the West Bank and collaborating with Iranian forces.
"With this aggression, which aims to transfer the weight of the conflict to the occupied West Bank, the occupier wants to impose a new state of affairs on the ground to annex the West Bank," the Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian movement close to Hamas, said in a statement.
Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 40,534 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The U.N. rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
In the West Bank in the early hours of Wednesday, the Israeli military launched a series of coordinated raids across four West Bank cities — Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem. Columns of Israeli armored vehicles entered two refugee camps in the latter two cities.
By midday, soldiers had sealed off entrances to nearby towns and camps, according to AFP photographers, as gunfire and explosions rang out from within the camps. Israeli bulldozers ripped up asphalt from the streets, with the army claiming they were searching for roadside bombs.
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