Shooting and explosions in Jenin as Israel presses raid

Gunfire and explosions rocked the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, an AFP journalist reported, as the Israeli military kept up a large-scale raid for a second day.

The operation, launched just days after a ceasefire paused more than a year of fighting in Gaza, has left at least 10 Palestinians dead, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Israeli officials have said the raid is part of a broader campaign against militants in the West Bank, citing thousands of attack attempts since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023.

“The situation is very difficult,” Jenin governor Kamal Abu Al Rub told AFP. “The occupation army has bulldozed all the roads leading to Jenin camp and to the Jenin government hospital … There is shooting and explosions,” he added, referring to the Israeli military.

Hundreds of Palestinians were trapped in a hospital by an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank that has killed at least 10 people in two days, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

A Palestinian man walks past the Israeli army vehicles in a street during a military raid in Jenin on Wednesday. AFP

On Wednesday afternoon, pregnant women and older adults, one carrying an infant bundled in a blanket against the winter chill, walked past ambulances and armored vehicles away from the hospital and the Jenin refugee camp, as gunfire echoed down the empty streets and Israeli military drones and aircraft buzzed low overhead. “There’s no medicine, no food, no supplies, nothing,” said Ashram Abu Sroor, shaking his head as he exited the hospital.

Israeli forces have detained around 20 people from villages around Jenin since the operation began on Tuesday, the official said.

An AFP correspondent reported hearing gunfire and explosions from the northern city’s refugee camp, a hotbed of militancy where Israeli forces have carried out repeated raids.

Islamic Jihad, one of the factions present in Jenin, condemned what it called “the systematic displacement, destruction and killing carried out by the occupation army against Jenin refugee camp.”

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.”

Palestinians walk through a street during a military raid by Israeli forces in Jenin. AFP

Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to continue the raid in Jenin.

“It is a decisive operation aimed at eliminating terrorists in the camp,” Katz said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the military would not allow a “terror front” to be established there. “It is a key lesson learnt from Gaza… we do not want terrorism to recur in the camp once the operation ends,” he said.

Meanwhile, Israel said it will maintain control of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip during the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas.

A statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday denied reports that the Palestinian Authority would control the crossing. The truce, now in its fourth day, is supposed to bring calm to war-battered Gaza for at least six weeks and see 33 Hamas-held hostages released in return for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

The statement said European Union monitors would supervise the crossing, which will be surrounded by Israeli troops. Israel also will approve the movement of all people and goods.

After more than a year hiding in tunnels and dodging air strikes, uniformed Hamas fighters returned to the ruined streets of Gaza hours into a ceasefire, defying Israel’s vow to crush them.

With the world watching on Sunday as Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross, dozens of balaclava-wearing fighters in the group’s signature green headbands were seen at the packed Gaza City square marshalling the chaotic events.

The day after, Hamas’s deputy interior minister for the territory was out and about in Gaza City, declaring that Gazans were “living in a moment of victory.”

While Hamas was back on the streets, Israeli forces were withdrawing from the territory’s densely populated areas.

The destruction they left behind was staggering, yet Hamas appears to have survived, in spite of Israel’s stated objective from the outset of the war of eradicating the group once and for all.

Agencies