Nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, died and around 15 people were injured on Thursday in an Israeli military incursion into the northern West Bank during which tear gas in the pediatric unit from a hospital, Palestinian authorities said.
The violence occurred during what Palestinian health officials have described as a ferocious daytime operation in Jenin refugee camp, a militant stronghold of Palestinian resistance to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank that has been the target of nearly a year of Israeli operations.
The clashes that ended with the nine dead were deadliest in years.
The conflict has worsened this month, with 29 Palestinians killed since the beginning of the year.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many of those killed on Thursday were affiliated with armed groups.
Netanyahu’s new government
The operation came weeks after the inauguration of Israel’s new government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the most right-wing in its historywho has promised to take a hard line against the Palestinians and speed up settlement construction on the lands Palestinians occupy and claim to be founding their state.
They also come days before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in the region to push for measures that it can improve the daily life of Palestinians.
“The situation in Jenin (Palestinian refugees) camp is critical,” Health Minister Mai Al Kaila said in a statement.
In all, nine people were killed, including a 60-year-old woman, and fifteen were injured, four of them seriously, during the Israeli attack, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Israeli forces “deliberately fired tear gas” at the children’s ward of a hospital in Jenin, “causing the suffocation of some children“added the Palestinian minister.
The Israeli military said on Telegram that security forces carried out an operation in Jenin refugee camp and would provide details later.
According to the Red Cross, the evacuation of many of the wounded has been difficult, said Minister Al Kaila.
The Palestinian official called for an “emergency meeting” to be held with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Israeli Army destroy everything and shoot everything that movesJenin Deputy Governor Kamal Abu Al Rub told AFP news agency, adding that residents are living “in a state of war”.
“What is happening in Jenin and its countryside is a massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation government,” said Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas.
Thursday’s deaths raise to 29 the number of Palestinians, civilians or members of armed groups, killed since the beginning of the year in acts of violence against Israeli forces or against civilians.
Two young Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed by Israeli security forces officials on Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Authority.
One died after attempting to stab a soldier and the other in clashes with police, according to Israel.
The Israeli army, which oWest Bank since 1967effect almost daily operations in that Palestinian territory, particularly in the north in the Jenin and Nablus sectors, strongholds of Palestinian armed groups.
According to an AFP tally, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has cost the lives of more than 200 Palestinians and 26 Israelis in 2022.
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Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.