At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids and air strikes across the north of the occupied West Bank, a Red Crescent spokesperson has said, in what a Palestinian news agency described as a “major” Israeli offensive.
Two Palestinians were killed in the city of Jenin, four others in a nearby village, and four more in a refugee camp near the town of Tubas, said a Red Crescent spokesman. Fifteen others had been wounded, he said, according to AFP.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces were carrying out a “major offensive in the city of Tulkarm”, besieging hospitals and preventing Palestinians from moving in and out of the city.
Military vehicles had stationed themselves around al-Israa specialised hospital in west Tulkarm and the Shahid Thabet Thabet Governmental hospital, hampering the movement of ambulances, Wafa reported.
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Israeli forces are also deploying bulldozers to destroy Palestinian infrastructure as part of their latest assault on the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said. Israel routinely bulldozes Palestinian homes and infrastructure in the occupied West Bank claiming they lack building permits, although these are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.
Israeli forces had deployed four bulldozers in Tulkarm on Wednesday, Wafa reported, and were destroying infrastructure and water networks.
The Israeli army said early on Wednesday it was carrying out an “operation to thwart terrorism in Jenin and Tulkarm” in the northern West Bank. Several “wanted Palestinians” had been detained, the Times of Israel reported.
The Israel Defence Forces expected the latest operation to last several days, the Times reported, citing military sources.
The IDF has continually raided Palestinian communities in the West Bank since the October 7th Hamas attack that sparked the Israel-Gaza war. More than 640 Palestinians have been killed in the assaults and in attacks by Israeli settlers, including more than 100 children.
The overnight IDF raids in the West Bank reflect growing Israeli unease that the occupied territory is emerging as an increasingly significant third front as its forces battle in Gaza and on the northern border.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz is quoting military sources as saying one focus of the raids, in which at least nine people are reported dead, was a network suspected of being behind a suicide bombing last week in Tel Aviv.
The backpack bomb is thought to have gone off before the bomber reached his intended target, and only one passerby was hurt. – Guardian