The Israeli Army completed this morning the withdrawal of its troops from the Jenin refugee camp, which was completely devastated, and ended the unprecedented large-scale military operation in two decades in the West Bank occupation, which has resulted in the death of 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier.
(Also read: Israeli Army incursion in Jenin: young Palestinian hit by a bullet in her home)
“The forces that operated in the Jenin camp have left and the Army has returned to its routine activity in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank),” a military official confirmed to EFE about the end of the “House and Garden” operation, which it lasted 48 hours as a “broad counterterrorism effort.”
The incursion into the Jenin countryside, a historic stronghold of the Palestinian militia movement, involved ground troops and aviation for the first time in almost two decades, making it the largest in the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada (2000-2005). focused this time on dismantling the Jenin Brigade, which brings together the militias of all the factions united since last year, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
ANDIn two days, Israel has arrested more than 120 suspects, seized numerous weapons and dismantled dozens of command centers, weapons warehouses and explosives factories in the camp, which it considers “the biggest focus of terrorism in the area”, where more than 50 attacks against Israeli targets have been planned in the last year.
Tonight the Israel Defense Forces launched an operation against the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure in the city of Jenin.
Over the past 2 years, Jenin has become a center of terrorist activities and an Iranian stronghold near population centers… https://t.co/QycuALuQVy
— Israel in Spanish (@IsraelinSpanish) July 3, 2023
victims
The operation resulted in the death of 12 Palestinians between the ages of 17 and 23, almost all of them militants but also four minors, and 120 wounded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health; In addition to a casualty in the Israeli ranks, First Sergeant David Yehuda Yitzhak from a shot during the withdrawal that could have been “friendly fire”.
The spokesman for the Israeli Army, Daniel Hagari, justified the end of the incursion because “all the objectives have been achieved”, although the Palestinian groups believe the opposite and the Islamist movement Hamas accused Israel of “having been defeated by the fighters of Jenin”.
(Also read: At least seven injured leave an intentional hit-and-run in Tel Aviv, Israel)
“The army withdrew from its inhuman aggression against Jenin with zero achievements,” Hamas spokesman in Gaza said., Hazam Qasam; while the Deputy Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PYP), Mohamed al Hindi, accused Israel of “exaggerating its statements on the confiscation of weapons and the dismantling of explosives factories”.
While the troops were leaving Jenin this morning, the Palestinian militias from Gaza launched five rockets towards Israel, all of them intercepted, to which the Israeli air force responded by bombing Hamas military installations, which governs the Strip, where it does not appear that the situation is going to improve. climb more.
There was also a shootout by Palestinian gunmen against an Israeli military post in the northern West Bank near Nablus today with no casualties, and the army is searching for the suspects. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant congratulated the security forces that “operated with extraordinary precision, professionalism and courage.” “They sent a clear message: terrorists have nowhere to hide,” he added. “The operation has been a success,” considered the former deputy director of the National Security Council, retired colonel Itamar Yaar, not only in terms of the “quantity of military infrastructure found and dismantled,” but also as a “deterrent.”
Photos of the destruction in the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp after Israeli attacks and shelling that left 12 Palestinians killed and more than 120 injured. pic.twitter.com/JMP2dCdIsQ
— Palestine Today (@HoyPalestina) July 5, 2023
Opportunity for Palestinian Authority
After the withdrawal, there has been no reaction from a weakened and discredited Palestinian Authority -which governs in Jenin-, although Yaar indicated that the Israeli military campaign is “an opportunity” for this entity, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to recover the lost control in that area dominated by “extremist groups”.
“Although they do not publicly acknowledge and even condemn the operation, the Palestinian Authority lWhat happened is convenient for their security forces to gain ground over other groups like Hamas,” he explained.
Around 3,000 residents of the Jenin camp who fled the fighting returned today to the place, which has again been completely devastated, with many houses destroyed, streets with raised asphalt, glass on the ground and remains of blood and shrapnel; and still without water or electricity in some areas.
In half a square kilometer, the camp houses some 20,000 Palestinians -more than half are minors-, refugees from territories seized by Israel in 1948, and was the scene of the bloodiest episode of the Second Intifada, when an Israeli incursion into April 2002 killed 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers in ten days of fighting.
The occupied West Bank is experiencing its highest peak of violence since the Second Intifada and this 2023, 156 Palestinians have already died in the framework of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, most of them militants in armed clashes with Israeli troops and attackers, but also civilians, including 27 minors. In parallel, the area has seen the proliferation of new Palestinian armed groups, which carry out more and more attacks and have left 26 dead on the Israeli side, most of them settlers, five of them minors, and one soldier.
EFE
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