Jenin [Palestine], July 4: Zionist forces killed nine Palestinians in a large-scale operation Monday in the occupied West Bank in what the army labelled an "extensive counterterrorism effort" involving drone strikes and hundreds of troops. The raid launched under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government targeted the northern city of Jenin and was the biggest in the West Bank for years, featuring armored vehicles, army bulldozers and drones.
Firefights and explosions rocked the city and adjacent refugee camp, a militant stronghold, as Palestinians threw rocks at soldiers and smoke from blasts and burning barricades darkened the sky, an AFP correspondent said. "There is bombing from the air and an invasion on the ground," said Mahmoud Al-Saadi, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin. "Several houses and sites have been bombed. smoke is rising from everywhere."
Eight people were killed and 50 wounded, 10 seriously, the Palestinian health ministry said - exceeding the toll of seven dead in a Zionist raid in Jenin two weeks ago which saw the rare use of helicopter missile fire. In a separate incident, Zionist fire killed a Palestinian youth near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Palestinian foreign ministry said the Zionist army had launched "an open war against the people of Jenin". Jenin resident BadrShagoul told AFP: "I saw them taking bulldozers into the camp, they were destroying buildings . These were people's homes."
At a hospital morgue some bodies were covered in blankets and others were heavily bandaged, an AFP correspondent reported, adding that the fighting continued late Monday. "We have many injured from explosives dropped from airplanes and many having bullet injuries," nurse QasemBenighader said. "In the last five years this is the worst raid." Jenin camp resident Mahmoud Hawashin called the situation "catastrophic", and predicted that "for every action there is a reaction. "If there is more Palestinian bloodshed, there will be more (Zionist) bloodshed."
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said "all options are open to strike the enemy in response to its aggression in Jenin". The Arab League said it will convene an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss "an Arab mobilization to counter the (Zionist) attack on Jenin". The Zionist entity has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967. Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is now home to around 490,000 Zionists in settlements considered illegal under international law.
The Palestinians, who seek their own independent state, want the Zionist entity to withdraw from all land it occupied in 1967 and to dismantle all Jewish settlements. However, Netanyahu has pledged to "strengthen settlements" and expressed no interest in reviving peace talks, moribund since 2014. Jordan called the raid "a clear violation of international humanitarian law, as well as (the Zionist entity's) obligations as the occupying power". - AFP
Source: Kuwait Times