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Israel’s military has launched major raids on the occupied West Bank, including the flashpoint cities of Jenin and Tulkarem, in one of the largest military operations in the area for years.
At least nine Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials, with the raids involving helicopters and drones.
Israel has targeted multiple cities at once, with Nablus and Tubas also being hit. It is believed to be an offensive of a scope not seen since the second intifada, a major Palestinian uprising that took place between 2000 and 2005.
Two men were killed in Jenin and seven in Tubas, the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry said.
With Israeli forces at war with Hamas in Gaza and simultaneously facing a major escalation of tensions with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon – both groups being backed by Iran – Wednesday’s operation underscored the complexity of the situation sparked by the Gaza conflict, with Israel now fighting on two fronts.
Palestinian militant groups said they were exchanging fire with the Israeli military, which has conducted near-daily raids on the West Bank since launching its military operation in Gaza in the wake of the bloody 7 October attack inside Israel by Hamas. Around 1,200 people were killed in that attack, while another 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. The consequent Israeli bombardment has killed more than 40,000 people inside Gaza – according to Palestinian health officials – while 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes.
The armed wings of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah factions said in separate statements that their gunmen were detonating bombs against Israeli military vehicles in the three West Bank areas.
Kamal Abu al-Rub, the governor of Jenin, said on Palestinian radio that Israeli forces had besieged the city, blocking exit and entry points including access to hospitals, and had ripped up infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp.
The Palestinian health ministry said troops had surrounded Jenin’s main hospital, blocking off access with earth mounds – a measure the military said was intended to stop fighters seeking refuge.
An Israeli military spokesperson said that Wednesday’s operation followed a sharp rise in militant activity in recent months, with more than 150 attacks involving shooting or explosives from Tulkarem and Jenin in the past year. He said the military had assessed that there was an “immediate threat” to civilians, but added that the operation was part of a broad strategy aimed at thwarting attacks.
“This terror threat in this area is not new, it hasn’t started yesterday, and it’s not going to end tomorrow,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters in a briefing.
Earlier, the military released the names of five Palestinians, identified as militant fighters, who were killed in Tulkarem on Monday. Two were claimed by Hamas and three by Islamic Jihad.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted a military source as saying that one of the raids was intended to target a network behind a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last week.
It was the first suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in eight years, but it is thought that the bomber did not reach his intended target, with one passer-by hurt.
The Israeli military said its forces had raided the town of Far’a near Tubas in the Jordan Valley, killing at least four people in a drone strike. Masoud Naaja, the father of two young men killed in the strike, told reporters he was giving water to some men who asked for a drink when he was wounded. “In seconds, very fast, we felt like something came down on us from the sky, and there was an explosion,” he said. “When I put my hand on my chest, it was full of shrapnel and blood.”
Clashes in the West Bank have risen sharply since the start of the war in Gaza. Israel, which says Iran has provided weapons and support to Hamas and other militants, has stepped up operations, while Jewish settlers have also launched frequent vigilante-style attacks on Palestinian communities. Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested in raids, and more than 660 – including fighters and civilians – have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the war began nearly 11 months ago, according to Palestinian health ministry figures. At least 30 Israelis have been killed in attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank during the same period, according to Israeli tallies.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the raids as a “serious escalation” and called on the United States to intervene. Mr Abbas later announced that he was cutting short a visit to Saudi Arabia and returning to the West Bank, where his government is headquartered.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 six-day war. The Palestinians want all three for a future state. Israel has built scores of settlements across the West Bank, which are home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers. They have Israeli citizenship, while the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited control over population centres.
Inside Gaza, Israeli forces sent tanks deeper into Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and launched strikes across the territory on Wednesday, killing at least 34 Palestinians, medics told reporters.
Residents of Khan Younis said Israeli tanks had made a surprise advance into the centre of the city, and that the military had ordered evacuations in the east, forcing many families to run for safety while others were trapped at home.
Palestinian health officials said the Israeli strikes in Khan Younis had killed at least 11 people. In the central city of Deir al-Balah, where at least a million people were sheltering, an Israeli airstrike killed eight Palestinians near a school housing displaced families, medics said.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
