The Israeli military struck the West Bank city of Jenin, authorities said Friday, the third day of heavy fighting in the Palestinian territory. The Israeli military says it “struck a terrorist cell.”
Such airstrikes, while common over the months-long Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, have been rare in the West Bank in the time since. Israel says the raids across the northern West Bank — which have killed 16 people, nearly all militants, since late Tuesday — are aimed at preventing attacks. The Palestinians see them as a widening of the war in Gaza and an effort to perpetuate Israel’s decades-long military rule over the territory.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling for an immediate halt to Israel’s West Bank operation, and issued a statement late Thursday calling on the government to protect civilians.
Here’s the latest:
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military conducted an airstrike in the West Bank city of Jenin amid days of heavy fighting in the Palestinian territory, authorities said Friday.
The Israeli military said in a brief statement that a military aircraft “struck a terrorist cell during an encounter with security forces in a counterterrorism operation in the area of Jenin.” It did not immediately elaborate.
Such airstrikes, while common over the months-long Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, have been rare in the West Bank in the time since.
Israel says the raids across the northern West Bank — which have killed 16 people, nearly all militants, since late Tuesday — are aimed at preventing attacks. The Palestinians see them as a widening of the war in Gaza and an effort to perpetuate Israel’s decades-long military rule over the territory.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war.
Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
UNITED NATIONS — In a rare rebuke, the United States sharply criticized Israel’s attacks on United Nations vehicles and called for an end to assaults and threatening rhetoric against the U.N. and humanitarian organizations.
At a U.N. Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood singled out the Israeli military’s repeated firing at a clearly marked vehicle of the U.N. food agency, which was hit by at least 10 bullets as it was moving toward an Israeli military checkpoint at the central Wadi Gaza bridge, despite having received multiple clearances from Israeli authorities.
In response, the World Food Program announced Wednesday it is pausing all staff movement in Gaza until further notice. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Thursday that all WFP convoys and staff remain on hold, though the staff was in contact with some humanitarian partners who deliver aid in Gaza.
Wood expressed alarm at the WFP incident and said Israel has told the U.S. their initial review said it was “a result of a communication error” between Israeli military units.
On July 23, UNICEF said two of its vehicles were hit with live ammunition while waiting at a designated holding point near the Wada Gaza checkpoint, waiting to reunite five children including a baby with their father. It was the second shooting involving a UNICEF car in 12 weeks.