The operation had been in the air for weeks. The Israeli security brass was rushed by the failed attack in Tel Aviv on August 18, which failed due to a malfunction in the detonator that was supposed to detonate the sophisticated eight-kilo device in a synagogue south of the city, at prayer time. The terrorist killed in the explosion was Jaafar Mona, from Nablus, and the bomb was assembled in the West Bank. Where Between Tuesday night and Wednesday, the Israeli army launched its “largest operation in recent years”, as reported by Palestinian witnesses. With hundreds of soldiers in the field, tanks, fighters in support, roads closed and Palestinian villages sealed. A military incursion of such proportions that the President of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazen interrupted his official visit to Saudi Arabia to rush back to Ramallah.
“The latest developments in the occupied West Bank, including the launch of large-scale military operations by Israel, are deeply worrying. I strongly condemn the loss of human lives, including children, and call for an immediate cessation of these operations.“: the Secretary General of the United Nations writes on X António Guterres.
IDF forces have identified three areas in which to operate, probably for several days: Jenin, Tulkarem and the Al Farah refugee camp, near Tubas, in the eastern West Bank. The urgent objective, in the version provided by the Israeli authorities, is above all to destroy the explosives laboratories and dismantle the entire chain of transport of components to build bombs. Then, arrest and eliminate terrorists who would like to expand the battlefield from the Strip to the West Bankas Yahya Sinwar calls from Gaza, imagining a widespread war against Israel of all Palestinians in the area. The operation, analysts note, has analogies with the preventive strike in Lebanon on Sunday: destroy weapons and hit terrorists who are planning attacks in Tel Aviv and throughout Israel before they carry out the threats launched immediately after August 18.
According to Palestinian sources, in the raid that began on Wednesday night, IDF troops stormed Jenin, supported by an air strike that targeted the area near the villages of Sir and Misilyah. In a statement, Fatah’s armed wing (Abu Mazen is president of the political wing) said it was taking part in the fighting, launching bombs against Israeli troops. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which like Hamas has strengthened in the northern West Bank in recent years, also issued a statement in which it spoke of “open war”. While Hamas itself accused the Jewish state of pursuing “a broader plan to expand the war in Gaza”.
There was no official announcement of evacuation by the IDF, but the Palestinian agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces ordered residents of the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem, to leave the site and imposed a curfew in eastern Jenin, preventing residents from leaving their homes. Meanwhile, Wafa reported, troops began extensive searches of homes and interrogations. It added that Jenin and Tulkarem hospitals have been surrounded and Israeli troops are reportedly planning to storm themThe IDF denied plans to enter medical facilities but the siege remains because “the enemy uses hospitals to take refuge during clashes with our forces and we have evidence of this,” the army said.
The UN said the Israeli operation “violates international law and risks further inflaming an already explosive situation”. Meanwhile, the IDF on Wednesday published the results of its investigation into the attack by Israeli settlers on the Palestinian village of Jit, calling it “a terrorist act against Palestinian residents, whom the IDF failed to protect.” New sanctions against settlers were announced late on Tuesday by the United States, angering Netanyahu, while the army said the body of a soldier killed on October 7 and taken to Gaza had been found in the Strip. The soldier’s family asked that no details be released.
‘Israel approves temporary truces in Gaza over polio’
“Israel has approved temporary humanitarian truces in the Gaza Strip to facilitate polio vaccination for the local population,” Channel 13 reported, saying the decision was made at the request of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The prime minister’s office denied authorizing a truce, but confirmed that it had approved “the designation of certain areas in the Strip” and that the decision was presented to the security cabinet and received support.
Hamas: ‘We are resuming suicide attacks in the West Bank’
According to Sky News Arabia, senior Hamas official and former deputy to Ismail Haniyeh (killed last month in Iran) Khaled Meshaal has called for the resumption of suicide bombings in the West Bank. In a video address to a conference in Istanbul, Meshaal said: “We want to return to suicide operations. This is a situation that can only be addressed with open conflict.” https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/mondo/2024/08/29/israele-approva-tregue-temporanee-per-i-vaccini-a-gaza-la-cisgiordania-e-in-fiamme-hamas-riprendiamo-gli-attacchi-suicidi-d7855d9e-4611-4eaf-804d-8667de2e4d44/ “I repeat my call to everyone to participate on multiple fronts in the real resistance against the Zionist entity,” he concluded.