TULKAREM: Despite UN fears that it was “fuelling an already explosive situation,” Israel continued its massive military operation in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, resulting in the deaths of at least 16 Palestinians in two days.
16 Palestinians have been murdered in the “counter-terrorism” operation that has been going on in the northern West Bank since early Wednesday, according to the Israeli military.
Following revisions to both preceding tolls, the Palestinian Health Ministry provided the same amount.
While violence raged in the war-torn Gaza Strip, the besieged Palestinian region that Israel had divided from the West Bank, raids were conducted on a number of cities and refugee camps.
Before Israeli forces surrounded the refugee camps in Tubas and Tulkarem as well as Jenin, they launched columns of armored vehicles into the West Bank, backed by soldiers and aircraft. They then engaged in gunfire with Palestinian fighters.
Five of the seven people slain on Thursday, according to the army, were fighters at the Tulkarem refugee camp. Muhammad Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, was one of the five, according to a military statement. Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian organization, said that Jaber was their commander at the neighboring Nur Shams refugee camp.
The army said that two more fighters were slain in Jenin on Thursday.
Significant damage has been caused by the violence, particularly in Tulkarem, where the governor, Mustafa Taqatqa, called the raids “unprecedented” and a “dangerous signal.”
“Israeli forces have repurposed homes as military positions,” according to the UN humanitarian office OCHA, and they are “effectively besieging” many medical facilities.
Antonio Guterres, the head of the UN, denounced in a statement the use of airstrikes and “the loss of lives, including of children” and demanded a “immediate cessation of these operations.”
According to Guterres, “an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank is being fuelled by these dangerous developments.”
“Progression” of the Gaza War
Bulldozers were seen tearing up the asphalt on the city’s roadways in AFPTV footage. There have been reports of widespread infrastructure damage. Witnesses reported that Israeli forces had left the Al-Farra refugee camp near Tubas, where the Palestinian Red Crescent stated many Palestinians, including two minors, had been murdered on Wednesday.
Israeli soldiers were reportedly stationed in Tulkarem, and AFP correspondents said that fighting was still going on in Jenin, where a drone was observed flying overhead and the streets were deserted.
According to the advocacy group Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, since Wednesday, at least 45 individuals have been held in detention in the West Bank. “Ten wanted individuals were arrested,” an Israeli military spokeswoman stated.
In an effort to stem the flow of bloodshed, King Abdullah II of Jordan called for a ceasefire in Gaza, and the foreign ministry of Iran denounced the Israeli operation as a “continuation of the genocide in the Gaza Strip.”
According to the UN, since the Gaza conflict broke out on October 7, at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers.
Israeli official estimates over the same period stated that nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, had died in Palestinian attacks or during army operations.
