PALESTINE. Jenin: During a military operation on Monday, Israeli forces launched drone strikes on the city of Jenin, which involved a significant number of troops and resulted in a prolonged gunbattle lasting into the morning. This escalation of violence in the West Bank led to the deaths of at least eight individuals.
Hours after the strikes, with the presence of audible drones coupled with the sounds of gunfire and explosions echoing throughout the city for hours, the Jenin Brigades, a coalition of militant groups located in the camp, stated it was engaging the Israeli troops and claimed the downing of one of the unmanned aircraft.
Six drones could be observed circling above the city and the adjacent camp, an area packed with approximately 14,000 refugees in less than half a square kilometre.
The camp has been at the centre of an escalating cycle of violence in the West Bank. Over the past year, Israeli military operations in cities like Jenin have been connected to a series of lethal attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, as well as assaults by Jewish settler groups on Palestinian villages.
The Palestinian health ministry confirmed that at least five individuals were killed and 27 were wounded in Jenin, with an additional fatality occurring in Ramallah after a man was shot in the head at a checkpoint.
The Israeli military has stated that it targeted a building used as a command centre by fighters associated with the Jenin Brigades as part of a significant counterterrorism operation.
The Israeli military had not employed drone attacks in the West Bank since 2006 until June 21, when it conducted a hit near Jenin. However, a military spokesman warned that these strategies might still be used given the violence’s rising scope and the pressure on ground forces.
He told reporters, “We’re really stretched. It’s due to the scale. It’s because of the scale.” “And again, from our perception, this will minimise friction,” he said, adding that the strikes were based on “precise intelligence”.
The apparent scope of the raid brought attention to the role that the Jenin camp played in the recent spike in violence throughout the occupied West Bank.
In the refugee camp, there are hundreds of fighters from terrorist organisations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah who are armed with a variety of weaponry that has been smuggled into the West Bank or taken from Israeli forces, as well as a growing stockpile of explosives.
Israeli forces stated that they had destroyed an explosives and ammunition storage site after seizing an unlicensed rocket launcher.
Monday’s raid, which involved a force characterised as “brigade-size” (i.e., between 1,000 and 2,000 soldiers), was aimed to “break the safe haven mindset of the camp, which has become a hornet’s nest,” the official stated.
However, it was uncertain whether the operation would prompt a wider response from Palestinian factions, luring in militant groups in the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave that the militant Islamist group Hamas controls.
All alternatives are open to attack the enemy and retaliate to its aggression against Jenin, and the resistance will engage the enemy and stand up for the Palestinian people, as per the Iranian-backed organisation.
Yoav Gallant, the Israeli Defence Minister, said that Israeli forces are closely monitoring the activities of their adversaries. “The defence establishment is ready for all scenarios,” he stated.
Following the previous major incursion in June, where Jenin was targeted, a group of Palestinian gunmen carried out an attack near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, resulting in the deaths of four Israelis. This incident triggered violent retaliatory acts from mobs of settlers in Palestinian villages and towns.
As the sun rose in Jenin on Monday, thick black smoke from burning tyres, set ablaze by residents, filled the streets while calls to support the fighters resonated from mosque loudspeakers.
In the 1967 Middle East War, Israel gained control over the West Bank, which the Palestinians view as the central territory for a future independent state. After years of ongoing conflict, peace talks that had been mediated by the US have been stalled since 2014.
Also Read: West Bank Bloodshed: Palestinian Gunmen Claim Four Israeli Lives
