Israel launched a massive military operation in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, killing at least 16 Palestinians in two days, with the United Nations expressing concern it would “de-escalate an already explosive situation.”
The Israeli military said 16 Palestinians had been killed in an “anti-terrorism” operation in the northern West Bank since Wednesday morning. The Palestinian Health Ministry gave the same figure, although both ministries have already revised the death toll.
The raids hit several towns and refugee camps as violence flared in the war-torn Gaza Strip, a besieged Palestinian territory separated by Israel from the West Bank.
The World Health Organization said Israel had agreed to a “humanitarian pause” of at least three days in parts of Gaza, starting on Sunday, to facilitate a vaccination drive after the first case of once-eradicated polio was confirmed in the territory.
Israeli officials did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday the measures were “not a ceasefire” in the nearly 11-month-old war that began after Hamas’ October 7 attack.
In the West Bank, contingents of Israeli armoured vehicles supported by troops and aircraft were sent in, before troops surrounded refugee camps in Tubas and Tulkarem as well as Jenin and exchanged fire with Palestinian militants.
The army said it killed seven militants on Thursday, including five from the Tulkaram refugee camp.
One of the five militants was Muhammad Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, who the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said was its commander in the nearby Nur Shams refugee camp, a military statement said.
Two other militants were killed in Jenin on Thursday, the army said.
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called for an “immediate cessation of these operations” which are “exacerbating an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank.”
– Gaza war ‘continues’ –
The violence has caused considerable destruction, particularly in Tulkarem, whose governor Mustafa Takatka described the raids as “unprecedented” and a “dangerous sign”.
The UN humanitarian office OCHA said “Israeli forces have turned homes into military bases” and “effectively besieged” several medical facilities.
AFPTV footage showed bulldozers ripping up tarmac from city streets. Damage to infrastructure was reported to be widespread.
Witnesses said Israeli forces withdrew from the al-Farra refugee camp in Tubas, where several Palestinians were killed on Wednesday, including two teenagers, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Clashes continued in Jenin, where a drone was seen flying overhead and streets were empty, and Israeli troops were in action in Tulkarem, AFP correspondents reported.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said at least 45 people had been detained in the West Bank since Wednesday. An Israeli military spokesman said “10 wanted individuals were arrested”.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II called for a ceasefire in Gaza to prevent the spread of violence and Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli operation as “the continuation of the genocide in the Gaza Strip”.
At least 637 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began on October 7, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed during Palestinian attacks or military operations during the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, when it also captured the Gaza Strip, from which it withdrew its troops and residents in 2005 but later re-established a siege soon after the October 7 invasion.
In Gaza, the Israeli military said it had killed “dozens” of militants in a day of fighting and attacks.
Israeli shelling killed five displaced Palestinians in a tent east of Khan Younis, the main town in southern Gaza, the Hamas-ruled territory’s civil defense agency said.
– ‘Lost everything’ –
Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7 killed 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The United Nations human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The war has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displacing most of its 2.4 million people and creating a humanitarian crisis.
On October 7, Palestinian militants took 251 hostages, 103 of whom are still being held in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Desperate families of the hostages gathered at the Gaza border on Thursday to deliver symbolic messages to their loved ones.
“I love you, stay strong, stay alive,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, yelled into the microphone.
He later told AFP that the war had “gone on too long” and “all sides are suffering… it has to stop”.
In central Gaza, some Palestinians returned to parts of Deir al-Balah after the army amended a previous evacuation order.
Mohammed Abu Thuriya told AFP he saw “huge destruction everywhere”.
Ibrahim al-Taban, another displaced Gazan in Deir al-Balah, said: “We lost everything.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
