on Monday that included hundreds of troops and set off a gun-battle lasting into the day, killing at least seven people in a major escalation of West Bank violence.
For more than a year, army raids in cities like Jenin have become routine, while there have been a series of deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israelis and rampages by Jewish settler mobs against“What is going on in the refugee camp is real war,” said Palestinian ambulance driver, Khaled Alahmad, describing Monday’s fighting. “There were strikes from the sky targeting the camp, every time we drive in, around five to seven ambulances and we come back full with injured people.
Palestinian youths run for cover amid clashes during an Israeli military operation in Jenin city in the occupied West Bank, on July 3, 2023.Until June 21, when it carried out a strike near Jenin, the Israeli military had not used drone strikes in the West Bank since 2006. Israeli forces said they seized an improvised rocket launcher and hit a weapons production and explosives storage facility.Monday’s operation, involving a force described as “brigade-size” — suggesting around 1,000-2,000 troops — was intended to help “break the safe haven mindset of the camp, which has become a hornets nest,” the spokesman said.