The Israeli army announced today that it has “launched a counterterrorism operation” in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, where it claimed to have “neutralized nine armed terrorists” during several simultaneous raids.
The Israeli forces “neutralized 9 armed terrorists” in Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarm, with 7 of them being “neutralized in airstrikes,” it was clarified. An Israeli military spokesperson downplayed the significance of the operation, stating that it is not “exceptionally different (from the usual) or special.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent announced the deaths of 10 Palestinians and the injury of 15 in these attacks.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia today to return and “monitor the developments of the Israeli attack in the northern part of the West Bank,” reported the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The Times of Israel, citing sources from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), reported that the large-scale military operation launched by the Israeli army overnight in the occupied West Bank could last for days.
The operation, which began overnight, is focused on the Tulkarem area, but Israeli forces are also operating in the city of Jenin and in a refugee camp near Tubas. According to the Israeli army, Palestinians who were wanted have also been arrested during the operation.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank announced that 5 people were killed in the refugee camp near Tubas and 2 in Jenin during this operation. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, three people were killed in a drone attack on their car in the southern part of Jenin.
“The IDF is working intensively from tonight in the refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem to counter Islamic-Iranian terrorist structures that have been established there,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X.
Katz accused Iran of “working to create an eastern terrorist front against Israel in the West Bank” based on a model from Gaza and Lebanon, “financing and equipping terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan.”
