JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Israeli forces raided a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, killing at least seven Palestinians, including a doctor, according to local authorities. The war in the Gaza Strip broke out seven months ago.
The army said its forces attacked militants during the operation, which took place in the Jenin refugee camp, bordering the northern West Bank city of Jenin, both of which have long been a bastion of armed struggle against Israel. The Palestinian Health Ministry said at least seven Palestinians were killed and another nine injured. Their identities were not immediately known.
The militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad said its fighters were fighting Israeli forces.
However, according to Wissam Abu Baker, the director of the Jenin Governmental Hospital, the medical center’s surgical specialist Ossayed Kamal Jabareen was among the dead. He was killed on his way to work, Abu Baker said.
Jenin and its refugee camp, seen as a hotbed of militancy, have been frequent targets of Israeli raids long before Israel’s war with Hamas broke out in Gaza following the militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7.
Nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed in fighting in the West Bank since the war began; many of them were militants, but others also threw stones or explosives at troops. Others not involved in the clashes have also been killed.
Violence between Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Palestinians has also increased.
Israel says it is cracking down on growing militancy in the area, signaling a spike in attacks by Palestinians on Israelis. Since the start of the war in Gaza, the country has arrested more than three thousand Palestinians.
Israel captured the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East war, along with East Jerusalem, which it later annexed, and the Gaza Strip, from which it withdrew troops and settlers in 2005. The Palestinians are seeking these areas as part of their future independent state, hopes for which they have faded since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
