Israel targets West Bank militant stronghold with drones, troops

Jenin: Israel struck targets in a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank with drones early on Monday and deployed hundreds of troops in the area, in an incursion that resembled the wide-scale military operations carried out during the second Palestinian uprising two decades ago. Palestinian health officials said at least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded.

Troops remained inside the Jenin refugee camp at midday on Monday, pushing ahead with the largest operation in the area during more than a year of fighting.

It came at a time of growing domestic pressure for a tough response to a series of attacks on Israeli settlers, including a shooting attack last month that killed four Israelis.

Black smoke rose from the crowded streets of the camp, exchanges of fire rang out and the buzzing of drones could be heard overhead as the military pressed on.

Residents said electricity was cut off in some parts and military bulldozers plowed through narrow streets, damaging buildings as they cleared the way for Israeli forces. The Palestinians and neighbouring Jordan and Egypt and the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemned the violence.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the operation was “proceeding as planned”, but gave no indication when the incursion would end.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an army spokesman, said a brigade-size force roughly 2,000 soldiers was taking part in the operation, and that military drones had carried out a series of strikes to clear the way for the ground forces.

Although Israel has carried out isolated airstrikes in the West Bank in recent weeks, Hecht said Monday’s series of strikes was an escalation unseen since 2006 the end of the Palestinian uprising.

Smoke billowed from within the crowded camp, with mosque minarets nearby. Ambulances raced toward a hospital where the wounded were brought in on stretchers.

Lynn Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian areas, said on Twitter that she was “alarmed by scale of Israeli forces operation”, noting the airstrikes in a densely populated refugee camp. She said the UN was mobilising humanitarian aid.

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the military blocked roads within the camp, took over houses and buildings and set up snipers on rooftops.

The tactics signalled the operation could drag on for some time.

“There are bulldozers destroying the streets, snipers are inside and on roofs of houses, drones are hitting houses and Palestinians are killed in the streets,” said Jamal Huweil, a political activist in the camp, predicting the operation would fail.

“They can destroy the refugee camp but will fail again because the only solution is the political solution in which a Palestinian state is established and the occupation ends,” he said.