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The UK has said it is “deeply concerned” by major raids by Israel in the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli military has claimed the killing of a Hamas commander during the third day of the assault.
A statement from the Foreign Office called for restraint, citing reports of civilian casualties and destruction of infrastructure as troops battled militants in cities and refugee camps.
"The UK is deeply concerned by the ongoing... military operation in the occupied West Bank,” the statement said. “We recognise Israel's need to defend itself against security threats, but we are deeply worried by the methods Israel has employed and by reports of civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
"The risk of instability is serious and the need for de-escalation urgent. We continue to call on Israeli authorities to exercise restraint, adhere to international law, and clamp down on the actions of those who seek to inflame tensions.”
The statement also condemned violence by settlers which has surged in the West Bank since the bloody Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October which ignited Israel's war inside Gaza. At least 652 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since the war began over 10 months ago, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israel says the operations are required to dismantle Hamas and other militant groups such as Islamic Jihad and to prevent attacks on Israelis. More than 500,000 settlers, who have Israeli citizenship, live in about 100 settlements across the territory that most of the international community considers illegal.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said its troops killed a local Hamas commander in the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, with a statement saying he was the head of the militant group in the city and was involved in previous shooting and bombing attacks.
On X, formerly Twitter, the Israeli military said it had "eliminated" Wassem Hazem during an operation in the northern Samaria area. It said weapons, explosives and large sums of cash were found in the vehicle and that two other Hamas gunmen were also killed in the drone attack. Hamas confirmed the three deaths, saying they were members of its armed wing the Al-Qassam Brigades.
The incident occurred as Israeli forces kept up one of its largest operations in the territory since the Palestinian uprising known as the second intifada ended in 2005.
The large-scale operation involving hundreds of troops and police was launched in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Jenin, Tulkarm and other cities.
The operation is the most significant in the West Bank since the 7 October attack by Hamas. Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in that attack with another 250 people abducted. Israel’s Gaza offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run strip.
Hazem’s death comes a day after the commander of Islamic Jihad Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, was killed during a raid in the city of Tulkarm. He was previously reported killed in an Israeli operation earlier in the year, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants.
Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. The three million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering towns and cities.
The Israeli military said on Friday it had finished a “major operation” in the southern city of Khan Younis and the central Deir al-Balah, claiming it killed 250 militants during the operation. The military did not say whether it was withdrawing troops but that it was “preparing for further missions.”
United Nations officials are preparing to launch a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza on Sunday that will rely on a series of limited pauses in fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it will need to vaccinate at least 90 per cent of the children in Gaza for the campaign to succeed, with the effort organised in the wake of a baby having been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The planned pauses are unconnected with negotiations that have been underway for months to try to agree a ceasefire in Gaza and a return of Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
COGAT, the Israeli agency that coordinates administration in the occupied Palestinian territories, said the pauses would be coordinated as part of a series of humanitarian pauses implemented periodically since the start of the Israeli campaign in Gaza last October. Hamas has also agreed to the pauses, which the U.N. says are needed for the campaign to begin at all. A second round of vaccinations will be needed once the first round is complete.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
