Israel’s deadly raid in Jenin has entered its third day, with its forces also increasingly targeting Palestinians across the occupied West Bank.
Two Palestinian men were killed overnight in attacks by Israeli forces in Burqin, taking the death toll to 12 across Jenin governorate in the first two days of large-scale raids.
The raids are part of Israel’s Iron Wall campaign across the Palestinian occupied territory, launched just days after a ceasefire in Gaza.
Palestinian news network Al Quds Today reported Muhammad Abu al-Asaad and Qutaiba al-Shalabi were killed in “an armed clash with the occupation forces that lasted for several hours”.
The Israeli military confirmed the killings on Thursday, claiming that the two were affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and were wanted for carrying out the shooting attack in the village of Funduq in the Qalqilya governorate earlier this month, which killed three Israelis and injured six.
Palestinian General Authority of Civil Affairs said Israeli forces have refused to release their bodies.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces involved in the killings surrounded a house in Burqin, and fired shots and missiles at it before razing it to the ground using a bulldozer.
Hassan Sobh, Burqin’s mayor, was quoted as saying in the report that Israeli soldiers used women as human shields during the attack.
On Wednesday, the Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP) reported that a 16-year-old, Motaz Imad Mousa Abu Tabeekh, was shot dead by Israeli forces.
According to the Ramallah-based organisation, he was one of the seven Palestinian minors killed in Israeli attacks across the occupied West Bank this year. Four of them had been killed by Israeli drone attacks and three were shot dead.
‘Collective punishment’
The Jenin refugee camp, set up by UNRWA in 1953 to accommodate displaced Palestinians, is a hub for Palestinian resistance groups operating under the umbrella of the Jenin Brigade and has long been a focal point for Israeli military incursions.
Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani claimed that the raid on the camp was aimed at countering “hundreds of terrorist attacks, both in Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank] and the rest of Israel”.
The attacks on Jenin are just one element of Israel’s intensified operations in the West Bank, which the Palestinian Authority (PA) says are aimed at “gradually annexing” the territory.
Recent Israeli raids across the West Bank include:
- Shu’fat camp in Jerusalem
- Sa’ir, north of Hebron
- Barham, north of Ramallah
- Rammun, east of Ramallah
- Birzeit, north of Ramallah
- Beita, south of Nablus
- Azzun, east of the city of Qalqilya
- Qalqilya
The sudden uptick in settler attacks and Israeli military operations has frightened Palestinians in the occupied territory, who believe they could now face the same fate as their compatriots in Gaza.
Residents have also reported a significant increase in Israeli checkpoints and delays across the territory.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Bethlehem, Palestinian researcher and activist Hamza Zubiedat said the situation in the occupied territory has become “catastrophic”.
“By isolating and cutting the Palestinian villages and cities from each other, it means no more doctors, nurses, teachers, even transporting the goods and fruits and vegetables from one place to another.
“It means more poverty and suffering for the Palestinian people,” he said.
Zubiedat said Israel was carrying out “a continuous annexing process” with the support of the Trump administration, with the new United States president having already lifted sanctions imposed on more than 30 Israeli settler groups and entities by his predecessor.
Elise Stefanik, President Donald Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations, told US senators on Tuesday that Israel had a “biblical right” to the West Bank.
In response, Farhan Haq, spokesman for the UN chief, told Al Jazeera, “The future of that of the West Bank, Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories as a whole needs to be dealt with through negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities.”
