Israeli forces surround Palestinian hospital and refugee camp in West Bank | West Bank

Israeli forces besieged a Palestinian government hospital in Jenin and a neighboring refugee camp in the heart of the city, as Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the assault marked “a change in… security strategy » in the West Bank.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday it carried out airstrikes in Jenin and detonated roadside explosive devices. The Palestinian Health Ministry said at least 10 people were killed in Jenin and more than 40 injured.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulances had been unable to reach large numbers of dead and injured people lying in the streets of neighborhoods around the Jenin refugee camp.

“No one can break the siege of the refugee camp and its surroundings,” said Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent. Their doctors treated seven dead and 17 wounded, all wounded by live ammunition, she added.

The intensification of Israeli raids on Jenin continued despite the recent ceasefire in Gaza, ending the Israeli assault on the territory that continued for 15 months following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israeli towns and kibbutzim around Gaza.

With the ceasefire in Gaza taking effect less than a week ago, Israeli forces have indicated the start of a new military operation across the West Bank.

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Wissam Bakr, director of the Khalil Suleiman government hospital in Jenin, said: “The current situation is horrible. Israeli forces destroyed the roads in front of the hospital. They place rubble from destroyed streets in front of hospital exits to prevent ambulances from entering or leaving.

He estimated that 600 medical staff and patients were sheltering inside the hospital, crowded in fear onto whatever beds, chairs or spaces they could find. Food and water supplies at the hospital would only last a few days. An Israeli drone was audible, he said, terrifying people gathered in the hospital.

Two nurses and three doctors were shot dead on the main road leading to the hospital on Tuesday, he added.

“So far, Israeli forces are outside,” Bakr said, sending an image of an Israeli military bulldozer appearing to clear some of the rubble at the entrance to the hospital complex. The sound of gunfire could be heard intermittently over the phone as he spoke.

The escalation in Jenin occurred as Israeli forces blocked entrances and exits to Palestinian towns in the West Bank using checkpoints. In the early hours of Wednesday, Israeli soldiers also launched a raid on the Aida refugee camp north of Bethlehem and in Tulkarem. The Palestinian Wafa news agency said at least 29 people were arrested Wednesday morning in the West Bank, most of them young men.

A committee within the Palestine Liberation Organization that tracks Israeli activity in the territory reported that the IDF had increased the number of military checkpoints and iron gates to nearly 900. did not comment on the precise number of new checkpoints.

Its international spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, told a news briefing Wednesday: “Our method of fighting terrorism, ensuring that terrorists cannot escape while allowing civilians to move freely, relies heavily on checkpoints.

Checkpoints are a tool we use in the fight against terrorism, allowing civilian movement while providing a level of protection to prevent terrorists from escaping and compromising the operation.

“This approach is much better than completely closing an area or allowing terrorists to move without restriction. During operations, specific checkpoints are usually established to prevent the escape of terrorists. This method is essential to reconcile freedom of movement and security.

Aseel Baidoun of Palestinian Medical Aid, speaking from Ramallah, said: “For two days we have been under extensive military lockdown. The Israeli army has installed hundreds of new checkpoints that make movement between cities almost impossible. People reported delays at checkpoints averaging between six and eight hours.

“People are stuck in their cities, unable to go to work,” she said. “It’s an open-air prison; we feel that we cannot move. If you want to go from Ramallah to Jericho, it is impossible, and it is even almost impossible to reach the neighboring villages. There are not only restrictions on movement, but also senseless attacks by settlers.”

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Shoshani described the military operations in the West Bank as “precise operations aimed at targeting and combating terrorists while allowing the civilian population to continue to live.”

Although Jenin Mayor Mohammad Jarar told Wafa that Israeli forces had called on residents of some Jenin neighborhoods to evacuate using a loudspeaker, Shoshani dismissed any reports of evacuations forced with “fake news”.

Shoshani said: “We must learn the lessons of October 7 and not let terrorist groups regroup and rearm and plan attacks within a few hundred meters of us. »

Wafa reported that the Israeli army also stormed several towns around Ramallah and El-Bireh, but no arrests or clashes were mentioned.

On Tuesday, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: “After Gaza and Lebanon, today, with the help of God, we have started to change the concept of security in Judea and Samaria and in the campaign to eradicate terrorism in the region. » using the biblical name by which Israelis designate the West Bank.

But Professor Yagil Levy, of the Open University of Israel, said: “There is no operational justification for action in the West Bank. »

A recent Palestinian Authority operation targeting Hamas in Jenin, although controversial due to its perceived support for Israeli objectives in the territory, showed that the authority was capable of maintaining control of Jenin and Gaza, a- he declared.

Israel’s decision to launch a military operation in Jenin, Levy said, was aimed at undermining the Palestinian Authority and its potential return to Gaza, destabilizing the West Bank and continuing to covertly annex the territory, and “to appease Smotrich and his party.

Smotrich, he said, “demanded that the fighting in the West Bank be added to Israel’s war objectives in Gaza. In exchange, he accepted the first phase of the hostage-taking and refrained from overthrowing the government.”

The United Nations Office for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OHCHR) said: “Public statements by Israeli military officials raise concerns about Israel’s plans to expand and intensify its operations in the West Bank busy. »

The Israeli assault on Jenin has also been accompanied by an increase in settler violence across the West Bank, as settlers appear to target villages where Palestinian prisoners were released under the ceasefire agreement. fire and hostage exchange.

Israeli settlers burned vehicles and properties in villages around Qalqilya, in the northern West Bank, as well as in Turmus Aya, near Ramallah.

More than 21 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were injured following attacks by Israeli settlers, including three children.

On Wednesday evening, the Israeli military announced it had killed an Islamic Jihad militant in Gaza, the first such death reported since the start of a ceasefire in the territory.

The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed that one person was killed and four others were injured.

As Palestinians in Gaza returned home, medical staff in the territory said about 200 bodies had been found under the rubble since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect on Sunday.

Gaza civil defense chief Mahmoud Basal estimates that the bodies of around 10,000 Palestinians killed during the conflict have not yet been found and buried.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 46,700 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The war began after a Hamas cross-border attack on Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people and took 250 hostage.