IDF military spokesman declared that the dead were all militants and that several more have been arrested.
ADVERTISEMENTIsrael launched a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, killing at least nine Palestinians and sealing off the volatile city of Jenin.
Israel has carried out near-daily raids across the West Bank since the Hamas attacks on 7 October of last year, which triggered an ongoing war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands.
Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani said that “large forces” had entered the volatile city of Jenin, which has long been a militant stronghold, as well as Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camp.
He said the nine dead were all militants, including three killed in an airstrike in Tulkarem and another four in an airstrike in Al-Faraa, and that another five suspected militants were arrested. He explained that the raids were the first stage of an even larger operation aimed at preventing attacks on Israeli civilians.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz drew comparisons with Gaza and called for similar measures in the West Bank.
“We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps might be required. This is a war in every respect, and we must win it,” he wrote on the platform X.
Shoshani said there was no plan to evacuate civilians.
‘Serious escalation’ leaves Jenin surrounded
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the bodies of seven people were brought to the hospital in Tubas, another West Bank city, and another two were brought to the hospital in Jenin. The ministry identified two killed in Jenin as Qassam Jabarin, 25, and Asem Balout, 39.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the raids as a “serious escalation” and called on the US to intervene, according to the official Palestinian news agency.
Palestinian militant groups, meanwhile, said they were exchanging fire with the Israeli military.
The governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub, said on Palestinian radio that Israeli forces had surrounded the city, blocking exit and entry points and access to hospitals, and ripping up infrastructure in the camp.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said Israeli forces had blocked the roads leading to a hospital with dirt barriers and surrounded other medical facilities in Jenin. Shoshani said the military was trying to prevent militants from taking shelter in hospitals.
Hamas called on Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up, saying the raids are part of a larger plan to expand the war in Gaza and blaming the escalation on US support for Israel. The militant group called on security forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which cooperates with Israel, to “join the sacred battle of our people.”
At least 652 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since the war in Gaza began over 10 months ago, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most have died during military raids, which often result in exchanges of fire with militants.
Israel says the operations are required to dismantle Hamas and other militant groups and to prevent attacks on Israelis, which have also risen since the start of the war.
ADVERTISEMENTIsrael captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war. The Palestinians and much of the international community envisage all three forming part of a future Palestinian state.
However, Israel has built settlements across the West Bank that are now home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers. These residents have Israeli citizenship, while the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited control over population centres.