Israel launches largest occupied West Bank offensive since Second Intifada
People stand next to the body of a Palestinian, who was killed during an Israeli raid in al-Far’a camp, at a hospital in Tubas, in the occupied West Bank 28 August 2024
Fayha Shalash reports in Middle East Eye on 28 August 2024:
Israel launched its largest offensive on the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada, attacking three cities – Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas – from land and air.
Drone strikes were reported in the three cities as troops opened fire at Palestinians on the ground, killing at least nine people, including seven in Tubas and two in Jenin, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The assault began just after midnight local time (21:00 GMT) after undercover Israeli soldiers entered the Jenin refugee camp and the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm. In Tubas, Israeli troops arrived via military helicopters and led the assault there, particularly in the Far’a refugee camp, according to Israeli and Palestinian media.
Large numbers of Israeli forces then raided the camps and besieged hospitals, preventing paramedics from reaching them, according to eyewitnesses and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
An ambulance officer from the city told Middle East Eye Israeli forces raided an ambulance station in the Far’a refugee camp and briefly held paramedics outside. Adnan Ghoneimi said Israeli soldiers forced medical teams to leave the station and lined them up against a wall as they searched the facility. Paramedics in the city had been blocked from reaching the camp since the raid began at midnight, he added.
A siege has been imposed on all the three cities – Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas – in the northern West Bank, cutting them off from the rest of the Palestinian territory.
Shatha Sabagh, a Jenin camp resident, described the raid as the largest she has seen in years. “The number of military vehicles storming Jenin is very large,” she told MEE.
“The three main hospitals are besieged and all the streets leading to the city are closed with dirt barriers. We have not witnessed an incursion this extensive for a long time, and it seems that it will continue for several days.” “Israeli soldiers took position in several buildings in the city and deployed snipers on rooftops, shooting at anyone that moves in front of them” she added.
Meanwhile, the city has been paralysed, with workers and students forced to remain indoors. Residents have also not been able to bury those killed in the raid so far amid the tight siege imposed by the military, according to Sabagh.
Khaled Sobh from Far’a camp described a similar scene there. “The situation in the camp is catastrophic and the incursion is the largest it has ever seen,” he told MEE. “Ambulances are prohibited from moving. The wounded were smuggled to hospitals because of all these closures.”