CNN
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The Israeli military is using lessons from the war in Gaza in its new West Bank operation to ensure that “terrorism will not return,” according to Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Katz said Operation Iron Wall in the Jenin refugee camp would constitute a shift in the military’s approach to security in the occupied West Bank.
“A powerful operation to eliminate terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the camp, ensuring that terrorism will not return to the camp once the operation is over – the first lesson of the method of repeated raids in Gaza,” he said. he declared.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the start of a “large-scale military operation” in Jenin – just two days after the ceasefire in Gaza took effect.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Israeli warplanes struck Jenin and Israeli forces, including snipers and armored vehicles, surrounded the city’s refugee camp and prevented ambulances from entering. enter it.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), one of the militant groups active in Jenin, has accused Palestinian security forces of participating in the Israeli military operation there.
The PIJ said the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) was “responsible for its participation and collusion in this aggression, having provided the occupation with services by imposing a siege on the Jenin camp for more than 40 years.” days “.
The PIJ said the PA “only serves the (Israeli) occupation.”
Katz said Israel would not allow Iran or any other armed group to threaten Israeli citizens. Israeli officials have previously accused Iran of aiding militant factions in the West Bank, particularly in the Jenin refugee camp.
“We will not allow the Iranian octopus or radical Sunni Islam to endanger the lives of settlers and establish a terrorist front in the east of the State of Israel,” Katz said.
It comes as a senior Iranian official warned on Wednesday that resistance to Israel would continue “as long as the repression continues.”
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Javad Zarif, Iran’s vice president for strategic affairs, said: “I would not suggest anyone start rejoicing in the destruction of Hamas, Hezbollah or Palestinian resistance, or cutting off Iran’s arms. because the resistance will last as long as the occupation lasts – as long as the repression lasts.”
More than 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which was conquered by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 war and is now home to 3.3 million Palestinians. Jewish settlements there are considered illegal under international law.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday that along with the Israeli security agency, known as Shin Bet, and the Israeli Border Police, they had “struck more than 10 terrorists” during the operation of Jenin and carried out “airstrikes on terrorist infrastructure sites”. » while “many explosives planted on the roads by the terrorists have been dismantled”.
“Israeli security forces are continuing the operation,” the statement said.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said nine people were killed, aged between 16 and 57. Additionally, a 29-year-old man was killed in the town of Ta’nek in Jenin district, the ministry said.
Video obtained by CNN showed Israeli military bulldozers digging up a road in front of the Jenin government hospital Tuesday evening, leaving piles of rubble in front of the driveway in the morning. The hospital is close to the entrance to the refugee camp.
Dr. Wissam Bakr, director of Jenin Hospital, told CNN on Wednesday that the facility was “completely under siege by the Israeli army.”
“No one has been able to enter or leave the hospital since yesterday. Yesterday, five medical personnel were injured by Israeli military fire,” Bakr said. “The roads outside the hospital were destroyed by Israeli military bulldozers. No ambulance can arrive at the hospital.
Efforts by Palestinian security forces last month to dislodge militant elements described as “outlaws” have largely failed.
Nearly 900 military checkpoints and gates have been set up in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, according to a statement from the Commission for Colonization and Resistance to the Wall, a group affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, in the city of Ramallah, in West Bank, Wednesday.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday accused Israel of “collective punishment” against West Bank residents by closing all entrances to Palestinian governorates, cities and refugee camps.
He said he viewed the Jenin operation as “part of an official Israeli plan to consolidate the occupation, impose Israeli law and progressive annexation of the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem.”
Some right-wing ministers in Israel have called for annexation of parts or all of the West Bank, a view supported by some of US President Donald Trump’s candidates for office. In November, Itamar Ben Gvir, who resigned as Israel’s national security minister last week over the Gaza deal, said it was time to apply Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank.
