Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians in the West Bank in overnight raids and airstrikes that were allegedly aimed at preventing attacks on Israelis with Iranian-supplied weapons.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the operation in the West Bank, one of the largest in recent years, was likely to last for several days as a preventive operation to head off any attacks on Israelis.
Palestinian health officials said 10 people were killed in the West Bank neighborhoods of Jenin and Tubas, and gun battles were reported to be continuing on Wednesday morning. Hamas said 10 of its fighters were killed in the West Bank.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said an escalation of Israeli military operations in the West Bank at the same time as a war in Gaza would “have catastrophic and dangerous consequences.”
“The world must take immediate and urgent action to rein in this extremist government which poses a threat to stability in the region and the entire world,” Abu Rudeineh said, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the operation was aimed at “disrupting the infrastructure of Islamic Iranian terrorist organizations.” Israel said all those killed were militants.
“Iran is seeking to build an eastern terror front against Israel in the West Bank by following the model of Gaza and Lebanon, funding and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weaponry from Jordan,” Katz said. X said in his post.
He suggested that evacuation orders should also be issued to civilians in the West Bank before the IDF conducts operations in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said he was unaware of any such evacuation orders. Later that day, the IDF announced that it had notified residents of the Noor Shams refugee camp in eastern Tulkarm to evacuate for their own safety, and that it was making roads clear to allow evacuation. The IDF also acknowledged that it had accidentally damaged a pipe that supplies water to the camp.
“A large number of soldiers, equipment, supplies and more than 50 armored personnel carriers are in Tulkam city, preparing to invade Noor Shams camp,” Tariq Shahada, 35, a resident of Noor Shams, said by phone from the camp.
Hours later, in the early afternoon on Wednesday, Shahada added: “Israeli soldiers are searching house to house. The situation is really dangerous. They want us to leave voluntarily, but no one is brave enough to leave the camp without the Red Cross accompanying them. It's too dangerous.”
According to UN figures, 128 Palestinians, including 26 children, were killed in airstrikes in the West Bank in the first three weeks of August. Israeli army and police significantly stepped up security operations this week. The UN said 183 search and arrest operations were carried out across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, last week, resulting in the detention of 113 Palestinians.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Rabina Shamdasani said the IDF operation risked “exacerbating an already tragic situation”, adding that two of the dead were reported to be children, bringing the total number of deaths in the West Bank since October 7 to 637.
“This is the highest death toll in eight months since the UN first began recording casualties in the West Bank two decades ago,” Shamdasani said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced operations in three areas of the West Bank: Jenin, Tulkarm and Al-Falah refugee camp near Tubas. Israeli military activity was also reported around the city of Nablus.
Shoshani said the raids and airstrikes were preemptive actions to thwart planned attacks on Israel, and compared them to Sunday's airstrikes in Lebanon that came just before Hezbollah launched rockets and drones at Israel.
The Palestinian governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Roub, said in a radio interview that the IDF had reported plans to attack the city's public hospital and called for international intervention to thwart them.
Shoshani said the Israeli military was trying to prevent the hospital from being used as a terrorist base, but had no plans to occupy and hand it over. A Palestinian medical aid group quoted a doctor at Jenin hospital as saying that medical staff had been severely restricted from entering the building in the morning, but that the IDF had later lifted its siege of the hospital and activity had returned to normal.
Palestinian Red Crescent spokesman Nibal Farsak said the situation at other medical centres in the northern West Bank was “extremely bad”.
“Our medical teams in Tubas, Tulkarm and Jenin were trying to carry out their humanitarian mission to reach wounded Palestinians but were faced with obstruction from the Israeli army,” Farsakh said. “The Israeli army raided a medical post in Al-Falah refugee camp, detaining the medical team and cutting off all lines of communication.”
But Shoshani said the raids came after an increase in attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians in recent months, particularly from Jenin and Tulkarm, long-time militant strongholds.
“In the past year, there have been more than 150 shooting and explosive attacks in these areas alone,” Shoshani said. He said that while the August 18 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv was the city's first in eight years, it was planned in Jenin, and that ambush roadside bombings have been on the rise. Two IDF soldiers have been killed in such bombs in recent weeks.
An Israeli spokesman said the increase in attacks was linked to arms smuggling into the West Bank, which the Israel Defense Forces said was orchestrated by Iran. “We have seen Iran actively trying to smuggle weapons and explosives into Judea and Samaria,” he said. [the official Israeli name for the West Bank] “This is being used to attack Israeli civilians for terrorist purposes and is a systematic Iranian strategy to provide funds, weapons and support to terrorist organizations across the Middle East,” Shoshani said.
Most reports of recent Palestinian bomb attacks suggest that the explosives used were locally manufactured.
Since the Gaza war began on October 7 last year, 19 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed in attacks on the West Bank. In the same period, more than 650 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces and militant Israeli settlers. An unclear figure includes combatants and civilians, but the United Nations says it includes 143 children. The Israeli security agency, Shin Bet, says settlers are using terrorism to seize Palestinian land.
