Israeli Military Begins Major West Bank Raids

[Pelican Press 0]

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******** Military Begins Major West Bank Raids

Hundreds of ******** troops backed by drones and armored vehicles carried out raids in the occupied West Bank, ******** and ************ officials said on Wednesday, a growing third front in conflicts that extend from the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip to southern Lebanon.

At least 10 Palestinians were *******, the ************ Health Ministry said, in what ******** officials described as an ongoing operation targeting militants and concentrated in Jenin and Tulkarm, two West Bank cities that an ******** military spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said have become militant strongholds. The ******** military said it had ******* nine militants.

A ************ armed group based in Jenin said it had fired on ******** forces in two villages on the city’s outskirts, and ************ residents in both cities described hearing intermittent gunfire.

The operation followed months of escalating ******** raids in the occupied territory, where nearly three million Palestinians live under ******** military rule. More than 600 Palestinians have been ******* in the West Bank since the Oct. 7 ******-led ******** on *******, according to the

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, in ********* involving both the ******** military and extremist ******* settlers. ******* has also arrested thousands of Palestinians suspected of involvement in armed groups.

That increasingly deadly campaign has unfolded alongside *******’s war with ****** in Gaza, touched off by the Oct. 7 *******, and the cross-border strikes traded with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The raid comes as U.S., ******** and Iranian officials have said that Tehran is operating a clandestine smuggling route across the Middle East to deliver weapons to Palestinians in the ********-occupied territory. The goal, as described by three Iranian officials, has been to foment unrest against ******* by flooding the enclave with as many weapons as it can, The New York Times reported in April.

******** ground troops this week have been pushing into Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and the Gazan health authorities said on Wednesday that ******** strikes had ******* 58 Palestinians in the enclave over the past day.

The military said on Wednesday that it had recovered the body of a soldier kidnapped on Oct. 7. It was not clear from the military’s statement whether the soldier had been taken to Gaza ***** or still alive; it said it was withholding his name at the request of his family.

A day earlier, ******** troops rescued the ******** Farhan al-Qadi, whom they had found alone in a warren of tunnels they were investigating in the enclave. More than 100 hostages remain in Gaza, at least 30 of whom are presumed ***** by the ******** authorities.

The ******* Nations said on Wednesday that one of its vehicles in Gaza had been targeted by ******** gunfire. It was “a clearly marked U.N. humanitarian vehicle, part of a convoy that had been fully coordinated” with the ******** military, said Stéphane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman. Ten bullets hit the vehicle, but no one was hurt, he said.

The World Food Program, an arm of the ******* Nations, said it had been operating the vehicle, and that in response to the *********, it was suspending staff movements in Gaza.

The ******** Defense Force said that the incident “is under review.”

As a measure of the geographic breadth of the fighting, the ******** military on Wednesday said that in addition to its actions in Gaza and the West Bank, it had attacked what it said was a ********** operating on the Syria-Lebanon border, as well as structures in southern Lebanon belonging to Hezbollah, the militant group allied with Iran.

But ******** raids have ******* to tamp down the armed groups in the West Bank. They have also put thousands of ************ civilians in the crossfire.

“People are living in a state of ******* and anxiety,” said Kamal Abu al-Rub, the ************ governor of Jenin, who described the ******** incursion as unusually fierce. The sounds of intermittent gunfire and explosions resounded through the city, he said, adding that ******** officials had informed their ************ counterparts that they were imposing a formal curfew on parts of the city and that soldiers had surrounded Jenin’s hospitals, and the city’s entrances and exits.

The raids appeared to be the largest since last year. In July 2023, about 1,000 ******** soldiers carried out a 48-hour incursion in Jenin that ******* 12 Palestinians, at least nine claimed by militant groups as members. In December, a three-day raid on the same city ******* 12.

The raids on Wednesday sent panic through Jenin. Salam Azaizeh was on her way home from a job cleaning a wedding hall when a large contingent of ******** forces engaged in **** battles with armed fighters.

******** bulldozers ripped up roads, reflecting what the military has called

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******* beneath the pavement.

Ms. Azaizeh, 34, took cover in a neighbor’s home, where she remained trapped the past day. “No one can go outside,” she said. “We’re hearing frightening sounds.”

Fearful of ******** snipers on rooftops or of having their homes stormed by soldiers, Palestinians huddled inside. ******** military officials have said that when they raid people’s homes, they are searching for suspects and weapons or want to use them as lookout points.

Jenin is synonymous with ************ rebellion, the site of a major battle between ************ militants and ******** soldiers during the second intifada, or uprising, against the ******** occupation in the early 2000s. Israelis also recall Jenin as the home of numerous people who carried out deadly bombings and attacks. More recently, the impoverished city has been a hotbed for recruiting by militant groups like ******, Islamic ****** and others that have emerged among a disaffected younger generation.

******** officials said that more than 150 ********* and explosive attacks on Israelis have emanated from the Jenin and Tulkarm areas over the past year.

The ******** military has carried out nearly daily raids into ************ towns and cities in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7. But for residents of a neighborhood known as the Jenin camp, the incursion on Wednesday felt different from many of the previous military raids.

******** forces often withdraw within hours after arresting suspected militants or engaging in **** battles with them. This time, its forces were still present in the area as of Wednesday afternoon and had set up roadblocks consisting of dirt mounds, residents said.

Colonel Shoshani, the ******** military spokesman, told reporters on Wednesday that ******** forces were in “the first stages of this operation.”

Muhammad Al-Masri was at home in Jenin when the ******** forces invaded his neighborhood, bringing armored vehicles and bulldozers. Some of his neighbors fled as ******** forces closed in, but most remained in their homes, he said.

“No one knows what is happening,” said Mr. Al-Masri, a former member of the local committee that administers the camp. “Will it last days or hours?”

Reporting was contributed by Erika Solomon, Johnatan Reiss, Farnaz Fassihi, Ronen Bergman, Victoria Kim and Eric Schmitt.

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