Israel launched a large-scale military incursion in the northern occupied West Bank on Monday, killing seven Palestinians in what the army called a “extensive counterterrorism effort.”
The operation, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right administration, is the largest of its sort in years, involving bulldozers, armored vehicles, and unmanned aerial aircraft.
As sirens sounded, Palestinian militants wearing balaclavas opened fire on Israeli forces. Other Palestinians hurled rocks.
Israel had previously increased operations in the northern West Bank, home to Jenin city and its neighboring refugee camp, which is a bastion of Palestinian armed groups and has seen a wave of attacks against Israelis as well as attacks on Palestinian communities by Jewish settlers.
“We are striking the terrorism hub (of Jenin) with great strength,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told reporters.
“There is bombing from the air and an invasion from the ground,” Mahmoud al-Saadi, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin, told AFP.
“Several houses and sites have been bombed… smoke is rising from everywhere.”
