Thousands of Palestinians fled the Jenin refugee camp as one of the most large-scale Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades continued for a second day Tuesday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that at least eight Palestinians have been killed and dozens more wounded. The Israeli Defense Forces said that the mission was necessary to “dismantle” terrorist infrastructure, arrest suspects and capture weapons used by militant groups who use the camp as a stronghold.
The operation in the camp, which is densely populated with civilians, comes at a time of growing domestic pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to respond forcefully to a spate of recent attacks on Israeli West Bank settlers that have emanated from Jenin, including a shooting last month that killed four Israelis.
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“Jenin has turned into a safe haven for terrorism. We are putting an end to this,” Netanyahu said Monday.
Israel’s operation in Jenin: What’s the context?
- The Jenin camp and an adjacent town of the same name have been a flashpoint between Israelis and Palestinians since violence began escalating in spring 2022. Jenin has also been a major friction point for far longer. In the last Palestinian uprising, in 2002, Israel launched a major operation in the camp after a Palestinian suicide bombing during a large Passover gathering in Israel that killed 30 people. The camp was set up in the aftermath of the 1948-49 war between Israel and Arab nations. UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, says about 14,000 people live in Jenin. It’s an area of less than a quarter mile in size.
- Israel says it launched its latest operation in Jenin because the Palestinian Authority, the political entity that controls the civilian areas of the West Bank − Israel’s military controls the rest − is too weak to maintain quiet and prevent some militants from using the camp as a base to plan and launch attacks on Israelis.
- The Israeli army said it was allowing people who wanted to leave Jenin to do so. The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said that as many as 3,000 people had left by midnight, and they expected the exodus to continue. UNRWA said many camp residents were in need of food, drinking water and milk powder. Electricity and water networks inside the camp have been badly damaged by clashes.
- There may be political considerations at play. Leading members of Netanyahu’s far-right government, which is dominated by West Bank settlers and their supporters, have called for a broader military response to the ongoing violence in the area, particularly after the June 20 shooting that killed four people in the Jewish settlement of Eli. “Proud of our heroes on all fronts and this morning especially of our soldiers operating in Jenin,” Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist who recently called for Israel to kill thousands of militants if necessary, tweeted Monday. “Praying for their success.”
- More than 130 Palestinians have been killed this year in the West Bank, part of more than a yearlong spike in violence that has seen some of the worst bloodshed in the area in nearly two decades. Israel accuses its archenemy Iran of funding some of the militant groups involved in the fighting. Palestinians say such violence is inevitable in the absence of any political process with Israel and increased West Bank settlement construction and violence by extremist settlers supported by Netanyahu’s government.
- Islamic Jihad, a militant group with a large presence in Jenin, threatened to launch attacks from its Gaza Strip stronghold if the fighting dragged on. Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group also made threats, saying the Palestinians have “many alternatives and means that will make the enemy regret its acts.” Hezbollah fought a monthlong war against Israel in 2006. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
Contributing: Associated Press
