Die israelische Armee hat in der Nacht zum Mittwoch eine großangelegte Militäroperation im Norden des Westjordanlandes begonnen. Schwerpunkt der Aktionen ist nach Armeeangaben die Stadt Tulkarem, doch vor allem aus Dschenin und dem Flüchtlingslager al-Fara nahe Tubas wurden Kämpfe gemeldet. Videos, die in sozialen Netzwerken kursierten, zeigen heftige Feuergefechte zwischen israelischen Soldaten und militanten Palästinensern.
Aus palästinensischen Quellen hieß es, bei den Kämpfen seien mindestens elf Menschen getötet worden. Die genauen Zahlen variieren jedoch. Die meisten Opfer gab es demnach in Dschenin und al-Fara, die als Hochburgen militanter Palästinenser-Organisationen gelten. Die Zahlen werden möglicherweise noch steigen. Auch von einem israelischen Luftschlag auf ein Auto nahe Dschenin wurde berichtet.
According to Palestinian sources, Israeli security forces moved into the three towns in a coordinated manner around midnight. Large parts of the towns were cordoned off, including several hospitals. Israeli sources said the operations could last several days.
Israel’s army: Palestinian militants killed
The background is apparently the attempted suicide attack on August 18 in Tel Aviv. At that time, a man from Nablus was killed on a sidewalk in Tel Aviv when a bomb exploded in his backpack. The man had apparently intended to carry out an attack, but the bomb was detonated prematurely. An Israeli passerby was injured in the incident. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. Israeli security authorities suspect the masterminds behind the attack were in Nablus and the surrounding area.
The Israeli army also confirmed on Wednesday that it had killed five Palestinian militants in an air strike in the West Bank on Monday. One of the dead is said to be a member of Hamas’ military wing, who was released as part of the ceasefire agreement in November in exchange for Israeli hostages that Hamas had abducted to the Gaza Strip on October 7.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war in response to the Hamas terror attack, tensions in the West Bank have also risen immensely. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are particularly strongly represented in Jenin and the surrounding area. Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Iran of building a terror network in the West Bank based on the model of Lebanon and Gaza. He called for the combat zones in the West Bank to be temporarily evacuated. “We must deal with the danger in the same way that we deal with the terror infrastructure in Gaza,” Katz wrote on Platform X. “This is a war in every sense of the word.”
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