13 killed by Israeli army gunfire in Jenin and the occupied West Bank

Thirteen Palestinians were killed Thursday by Israeli army gunfire in the occupied West Bank, according to what the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced, noting that 10 of them were killed during an ongoing military operation by the army in the city of Jenin.

The ministry confirmed in a brief statement that there were “10 martyrs and more than 20 various injuries in Jenin” in the northern West Bank.

For its part, the Israeli army confirmed that it was carrying out operations in Jenin and would issue a statement after they were completed, without providing further details.

The army entered the city after midnight on Wednesday, Thursday, and then withdrew from it early, returning in the morning hours with the aim of arresting wanted persons.

Eyewitnesses said that violent confrontations broke out in Jenin camp and that the army was besieging schools and Ibn Sina Hospital in the city.

In addition, similar sources in Jenin confirmed that four of the dead “worked in the Palestinian security services,” but they were not in their uniform when they were killed.

The acting governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu Al-Rub, told Agence France-Presse, "What is happening in the Jenin camp is a war, and the Israeli army is besieging the camp, and we can no longer distinguish the number of martyrs or injuries."

The army carries out military incursions into the Jenin camp on an ongoing basis, stressing that its operations aim to "thwart terrorist operations."

In addition, the Ministry announced that three other people were killed by army gunfire in the West Bank.

The ministry reported "the martyrdom of a young man who was wounded in the morning by Israeli army bullets in the Al-Amari camp near Ramallah."

It also announced earlier that "two martyrs were killed by occupation bullets in Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, and in Dura, south of Hebron. They are: Muhammad Farid Hamdan Thawabta (51 years old) and Anas Nasser Muhammad Abu Atwan (30 years old)."

A Palestinian security official said that the Israeli army was carrying out an “unprecedented campaign of incursions into several cities in the West Bank on Thursday, the most violent since the beginning of the war in Gaza” more than a month ago.

This official, who requested to remain anonymous, said, "I believe that these incursions into various Palestinian cities are aimed at distracting the residents of the West Bank from something that is being worked on in Gaza."

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, following the movement's unprecedented attack on southern Israel, tension has escalated in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem and its Old City.

More than 170 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Ministry of Health.

The Israeli army confirmed that it had arrested more than a thousand Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, noting that the majority of them belong to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

For its part, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club reported that the number of people arrested by Israeli forces during that period exceeded two thousand people.

At least 1,400 people were killed in an attack launched by Hamas inside Israeli territory on October 7, most of them civilians, most of whom died on the first day of the attack.

The continuous Israeli air and artillery bombardments on the Gaza Strip since the attack have killed 10,812 people, including 4,412 children, and injured more than 26,900, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

AFP