Israel’s deadly raid in Jenin has entered its third day, with its forces issuing a forced evacuation threat to residents of the refugee camp in the city.
Hundreds of Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp started leaving their homes on Thursday.
“The Israeli army, using loudspeakers on drones and military vehicles, ordered them to evacuate the camp,” where Israel’s military launched an intense military operation this week, Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP news agency.
Elsewhere, two Palestinian men were killed overnight in attacks by Israeli forces in Burqin, taking the death toll to 12 across Jenin governorate in the first two days of large-scale raids.
The raids are part of Israel’s “Iron Wall” campaign across the occupied Palestinian territory, launched just days after a ceasefire in Gaza.
Palestinian news network Al Quds Today reported that Muhammad Abu al-Asaad and Qutaiba al-Shalabi were killed in “an armed clash with the occupation forces that lasted for several hours”.
The Israeli military confirmed the killings on Thursday, claiming that the two were affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and were wanted for carrying out the shooting attack in the village of Funduq in the Qalqilya governorate earlier this month, which killed three Israelis and injured six.
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said the two men were Hamas members.
The Palestinian General Authority of Civil Affairs said Israeli forces have refused to release their bodies.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces involved in the killings surrounded a house in Burqin, and fired shots and missiles at it before razing it to the ground using a bulldozer.
Hassan Sobh, Burqin’s mayor, was quoted as saying in the report that Israeli soldiers used women as human shields during the attack.
On Wednesday, the Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP) reported that a 16-year-old, Motaz Imad Mousa Abu Tabeekh, was shot dead by Israeli forces.
According to the Ramallah-based organisation, he was one of the seven Palestinian minors killed in Israeli attacks across the occupied West Bank this year. Four of them had been killed by Israeli drone attacks and three were shot dead.
Israeli forces arrested 22 Palestinians across the occupied territory between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
The groups said in a joint statement on Telegram that the arrests took place in the governorates of Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarem, Ramallah and Jerusalem, and involved “abuse and destruction of infrastructure, and vandalism and destruction of citizens’ homes”.
‘Collective punishment’
The Jenin refugee camp, set up in 1953 by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to accommodate displaced Palestinians, is a hub for Palestinian resistance groups operating under the umbrella of the Jenin Brigades and has long been a focal point for Israeli military incursions.
Israel’s army has defended its deadly incursion into the occupied West Bank. The raid in Jenin aims to counter “hundreds of terrorist attacks, both in [the occupied West Bank] and the rest of Israel”, military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said.
Since the start of the Gaza war, Israel has seen “over 2,000 terror attack attempts” from the occupied West Bank, he said, adding the army “eliminated around 800 terrorists”.
The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry accused Israel of “collective punishment” and said the raid was part of an Israeli plan aimed at “gradually annexing the occupied West Bank”.
The attacks on Jenin are just one element of Israel’s intensified operations in the West Bank, which the Palestinian Authority (PA) says are aimed at “gradually annexing” the territory.
Recent Israeli raids across the West Bank include:
- Shu’fat camp in Jerusalem
- Sa’ir, north of Hebron
- Barham, north of Ramallah
- Rammun, east of Ramallah
- Birzeit, north of Ramallah
- Beita, south of Nablus
- Azzun, east of the city of Qalqilya
- Qalqilya
The sudden uptick in settler attacks and Israeli military operations has frightened Palestinians in the occupied territory, who believe they could now face the same fate as their compatriots in Gaza.
Residents have also reported a significant increase in Israeli checkpoints and delays across the territory.
Palestinian lawyer Mohammad Dahleh told Al Jazeera that the Israeli military’s ramped-up assault on the occupied West Bank has to do with the agreement about the ceasefire.
“They want to continue the war in Gaza and the way to do that is escalation in the West Bank.”
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Bethlehem, Palestinian researcher and activist Hamza Zubiedat said the situation in the occupied territory has become “catastrophic”.
“By isolating and cutting the Palestinian villages and cities from each other, it means no more doctors, nurses, teachers, even transporting the goods and fruits and vegetables from one place to another.
“It means more poverty and suffering for the Palestinian people,” he said.
Zubiedat said Israel was carrying out “a continuous annexing process” with the support of the US administration of Donald Trump, with the new United States president having already lifted sanctions imposed on more than 30 Israeli settler groups and entities by his predecessor.
Elise Stefanik, President Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations, told US senators on Tuesday that Israel had a “biblical right” to the West Bank.
In response, Farhan Haq, spokesman for the UN chief, told Al Jazeera, “The future of that of the West Bank, Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories as a whole needs to be dealt with through negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities.”
