Israeli occupation forces continued their attacks on the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, where signs of widespread destruction spread, amid Palestinian warnings of a “war of annihilation” as the Palestinian death toll rose in two days. Besides 120 arrests, 10 died and 100 were injured.
The large-scale Israeli military operation at the Jenin camp was one of the most violent military operations in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades. The Israeli army said yesterday that hundreds of members of the camp and about 120 soldiers continued their operation. Vehicles and armored bulldozers took part in the operation, during which there were attacks by drones, units of special forces and elite forces of the army, security and border guards.
Yesterday morning, debris was strewn across the streets of Jenin. Black smoke occasionally rose from the camp. Residents reported that water and electricity had been cut off from the camp. Jenin Mayor Nidal. Al-Obeidi confirmed that around 4,000 Palestinians have left the camp in search of safe haven.
Inside the camp, home to about 18,000 people, power cables were downed and the streets littered with shell casings. Stairs and pavements of stone-strewn houses were uprooted.
Mahmoud Hawashin, a member of the Fatah movement in Jenin governorate, described conditions in the camp as “disastrous”. He told AFP as he examined the wounded at Ibn Sina Hospital: “This is an unequal war between massive military forces and an army. Defenseless people who have nothing but their will.”
And the Palestinian Authority announced in a statement that it was suspending all contacts and meetings with the Israeli side after an emergency meeting yesterday led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Qaila warned of a “continuing war of attrition in the Jenin refugee camp”, telling reporters in the city of Ramallah that the Israeli army had prevented ambulances and medical staff from moving freely into the camp. He also expressed his apprehension about the high death toll and the injured in light of the severe restrictions on the work of medical staff from reaching the injured to save their lives.
He has issued letters of protest to the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross, urging them to pressure Israel to allow medical workers to work and to stop targeting hospitals, clinics and ambulances.
Also, Israeli police said eight people were injured when a Palestinian drove a pickup truck into several pedestrians in Tel Aviv yesterday. One of its members retaliated against the military campaign against Jenin.
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