In the night between Sunday and Monday, the Israeli army launched a major military operation against the refugee camp in the city of Jenin in the West Bank, the territory that Israel has occupied since 1967 and which the Palestinians claim as their own. A large number of soldiers, armored vehicles and above all aerial bombardments by drones were used in the operation. At least three people have died, it is not known whether they are among the civilian population or among the militiamen who live in the camp, and there are dozens injured.
The operation was described by the army as “a large-scale action to counter terrorism in Jenin”. It covered the city of Jenin but focused above all on the refugee camp located on its edge, where 14,000 people live very densely in less than half a square kilometre. In the Jenin camp it is believed that hundreds of fighters from various Palestinian armed groups, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, find refuge.
Tuesday’s raid used troops equivalent to a “brigade,” the Israeli military said, suggesting at least 1,000 to 2,000 soldiers. But what caused the bulk of the damage, and constituted one of the most notable elements of the operation, was the use of drones, which bombed various positions in the camp from above.
Drone strikes had not been used for operations in the West Bank for years, before the far-right Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu resumed their use this month. The army said it struck a “military headquarters” used by a local armed group and then carried out targeted bombings on various targets within the camp.
Some Palestinian witnesses described the operation as much more indiscriminate. Khaled Alahmad, an ambulance driver, told Reuters that there was “a real war” in the Jenin camp and said: “Every time ambulances went out, five to seven vehicles, they came back full of injured people.”
However, groups of Palestinian fighters inside the camp responded violently to the operation. Local members of the Islamic Jihad group, which are known as the Jenin Battalion, said they attacked numerous Israeli armored personnel carriers with explosive weapons.
For over a year now, the level of clashes in the West Bank has been increasing considerably. Just last week, the Israeli army was involved in a major clash also near the Jenin refugee camp, where it used military helicopters to fire on Palestinian fighters.