Israeli security forces backed by helicopters have raided the volatile West Bank city of Jenin, killing at least nine Palestinians in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “large-scale and significant military operation”, Reuters reports.
The action, launched a day after US President Donald Trump declared he was lifting sanctions on ultranationalist Israeli settlers who attacked Palestinian villages, was announced by Netanyahu as a new offensive against fighters.
As the operation began, Palestinian security forces withdrew from the refugee camp and the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard in mobile phone footage shared on social media.
Palestinian health services said at least nine Palestinians were killed and 35 wounded in the Israeli raid, which continued well into the night. A week earlier, an Israeli air strike in the Jenin refugee camp killed at least three Palestinians and wounded scores more.
“We are acting systematically and resolutely against the Iranian axis wherever it extends its arms — in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said. Judea and Samaria are terms Israel uses for the occupied West Bank.
Israeli military vehicles drive on the street during an Israeli raid, in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on January 21. — Reuters/Raneen Sawafta
Foreign attacker killed after stabbing 5 in Tel Aviv
A foreign attacker stabbed five people in Tel Aviv before being shot dead, Israeli authorities said, according to AFP.
“A terrorist with a knife started stabbing people on Nahalat Binyamin Street, wounding four civilians” before hurting a fifth person nearby, police said. Police identified the attacker as a 28-year-old foreigner who was shot by security forces.
Without claiming responsibility, Hamas in a statement praised the attack as a “heroic stabbing operation” that showed resistance to Israel was “increasing”.
President Abbas seeks US intervention
Following an attack on Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli settlers, the Palestinian president has called on US President Donald Trump’s administration to stop “crimes and Israeli policies” against Palestinians.
Late on Monday, bands of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians, smashing cars and burning property, around the village of al-Funduq, near Qalqilya, an area where three Israelis were killed in a shooting earlier this month.
The military said it had opened an investigation into the incident, which it said involved dozens of Israeli civilians, some in masks. The Palestinian Authority condemned the settler attack in al-Funduq as well as the sudden appearance of multiple new barriers and roadblocks, which it said were aimed at “dismembering the West Bank”.
“We call on the new American administration to intervene to stop these crimes and Israeli policies that will not bring peace and security to anyone,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office said in a statement.
“There was a carpenter’s shop here where I have been working for the past eight years,” said Abdulmalek Farajallah, who said more than 200 settlers had taken part in the attack. “They burned it down, and our neighbours’ buildings and cars over there. No one can do anything.” — Agencies
