Two Hamas fighters have been killed by an Israeli airstrike in the city of Tulkarem, according to the Palestinian organization, underscoring Israel’s renewed attention to the occupied West Bank since the start of the ceasefire agreement with Gaza.
The two men killed on Monday were believed to be members of Hamas’ armed wing, according to Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military claimed to have targeted a Hamas member as well as a man who ran Hamas’s head in Tulkarem, who it claimed was responsible for numerous attacks on Israelis.
Meanwhile, Tulkarem residents reported to the Reuters news agency that an Israeli raid was taking place in the city.
Israeli operations in the Jenin neighborhood continue for a seventh day as a result of that operation.
As part of Israel’s “Iron Wall” campaign, Israeli forces launched a number of attacks on Jenin, a crowded township north of Tulkarem, on January 21 with the aid of armored vehicles and drones.
Since the start of the operation, at least 16 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin and the surrounding areas, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Mohammad Jarrar, the mayor of Jenin, said on Sunday that some 15, 000 people have been forced to flee the camp due to Israeli attacks.
He added that hundreds of other homes in Jenin have been partially damaged, and that the Israeli army has, according to initial estimates, completely destroyed between 30 and 40 of them.
According to Jarrar, “the Israeli army is bulldozing and demolishing streets and infrastructure, creating pathways for its vehicles through the rubble of demolished Palestinian homes.”
Last week, the Israeli military said in a statement that it carried out aerial attacks on “terror infrastructure sites” in Jenin, adding that “numerous explosives planted on the routes” were “dismantled”.
Late on Saturday, Israeli forces shot a two-year-old girl during a raid on the village of Ash-Shuhada, just to the south of Jenin, Palestinian officials said.
“They started to shoot at us through the windows without any warning”, Reuters quoted Ghada Asous, grandmother of Laila Muhammad al-Khatib, the infant girl, as saying.
“All of a sudden, the special forces raided us and were shooting through the windows”.
The Israeli military said troops on a “counterterrorism” operation had fired at a structure where suspected militants had barricaded themselves. It was reviewing reports that uninvolved civilians were injured, it said in a statement.
Since the Israeli-occupied West Bank war started on October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 838 Palestinians have been killed there.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply