Israeli forces continued Wednesday in what they called a new anti-terror operation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, arresting at least 25 people in the final day, Palestinian news media reported.
The total number of deaths in Jenin since the start of the attack rose to 10 from eight on Tuesday, with four more injured, the Palestinian Authority’s state news agency Wafa reported, citing Palestinian officials.
The Israeli offensive on the second day was not just focused on Jenin.
On Wednesday, the military made arrests in Jenin, Ramallah, Hebron, Turkham and Bethlehem, officials said. Traffic has slowed or stopped as security has been tightened at checkpoints across Israel. In some cases The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that a 45-year-old woman had died while waiting to be admitted to a hospital at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Hebron.
Jenin Mayor Mohammad Jalal told Wafa that Israeli forces detained up to 600 people overnight at the Jenin government hospital, but they were allowed to leave the hospital on Wednesday morning. The news agency said Israeli bulldozers blocked the hospital’s doors with dirt from a nearby road.
Jalal also said people had been forced to flee their homes, but Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani denied this claim. “There is no evacuation order for Jenin,” he said.
Col. Shoshani briefed reporters on the operation and said people at the hospital were temporarily detained to ensure they were not injured by explosives detonated by the military nearby.
Since a temporary ceasefire was established in the Gaza Strip last weekend, Israel has focused its attention on the West Bank. Tensions are rising in the West Bank, where extremist groups are expanding and violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians is surging.
Colonel Shoshani said the operation in the West Bank was similar in scale to an operation carried out by the military in August. According to Palestinian media and residents, 21 people were killed in the 10-day attack in Jenin. It was one of the largest and deadliest attacks in the West Bank in years.
The colonel said the operation was Israel’s latest effort to curb extremist attacks, many of which had improvised explosive devices planted on civilian roads and under Israeli military vehicles.
“Our strategy is to fight terrorists while allowing civilians to continue with their lives,” Col. Shoshani said.
on a series of social media Post Roland Friedrich, head of the West Bank, the United Nations agency supporting the Palestinians, said on Wednesday that the Israeli operation was “expected to last several days” and was using advanced weapons, including airstrikes, against Jenin.
