8 dead as IDF launches extensive West Bank raid
(Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
(JTA) — The Israel Defense Forces launched a large-scale raid on suspected terrorists in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Monday, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens.
The raid is the most extensive in Jenin since the second intifada, which also saw intense fighting in the city, according to the Jerusalem Post. Jenin has been the site of multiple deadly raids this year by the Israeli military, which says the city is a locus of Palestinian terror groups that have killed dozens of Israelis in 2023. An Israeli soldier was wounded in the operation but has returned to the fighting.
The raid is an effort to stem that violence, which has escalated in recent months in the West Bank. In addition to the Israelis killed, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank this year, and the territory has been the site of several riots by Israeli settlers who have burned buildings, crops and cars.
“The Jenin Camp is a terrorist stronghold,” the IDF said in a statement early Monday morning, referencing the city’s refugee camp. “We will not standby idle while terrorists continue to harm civilians using Jenin Camp as a hideout.”
A Palestinian Authority spokesperson has decried the raid as “a new war crime against our defenseless people,” according to Haaretz.
The operation has included a drone strike on Jenin in addition to a ground incursion of hundreds of combat soldiers. The operation comes two weeks after clashes during an Israeli raid in Jenin saw an Israeli helicopter evacuate wounded soldiers from the city.
The Jenin fighting is taking place as civil strife threatens to erupt domestically in Israel. The country’s parliament, the Knesset, is poised to advance the government’s controversial effort to weaken the judiciary, and opponents of the overhaul have planned protests at Ben-Gurion International Airport and other locations in response.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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