Israel-Palestine latest: Israeli forces withdraws from Jenin after deadly raid that killed 13

As troops withdrew overnight, tensions remained high as shots were exchanged between the two sides

Aftermath of car-ramming that injured several Tel Aviv

Israeli forces withdrew from the Jenin refugee camp after a two-day deadly raid that left at least 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead, around 100 wounded, and thousands driven from their homes.

The incursion on the militant stronghold in the West Bank, one of the most intense in the territory in nearly two decades, began with late-night drone strikes, followed by a sweep involving more than 1,000 Israeli troops.

As the troops withdrew overnight, tensions remained high as Israel reported a volley of rockets from the Gaza Strip, another Palestinian territory. The rockets were shot down and Israel’s air force struck targets in Gaza belonging to the ruling Hamas, causing no casualties.

In a further sign of violence spilling over from Jenin, a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in Tel Aviv and went on a stabbing spree on Tuesday, wounding eight people before he was shot dead. Hamas claimed him as a member.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to carry out similar offensives in the future. He said: "At these moments we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off."

Key Points

• Israeli forces withdraw from Jenin leaving behind deaths and large-scale damages
• Thousands flee Jenin refugee camp to escape Israeli operation
• Israel launches air attack on Gaza Strip
• Seven injured after ‘Palestinian’ car-ramming and stabbing attack
• Three Palestinian children among dead - UN
• Journalists ‘directly targeted’ by Israeli army in Jenin

[5 July 2023 05:05 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Doctors’ organisation claims Israeli army fired tear gas into hospital

Israeli and Palestinian officials reported fighting near a hospital in Jenin late on Tuesday.

Doctors Without Borders accused the Israeli army of firing tear gas into a hospital, filling the emergency room with smoke and forcing emergency patients to be treated in a main hall.

Palestinian hospital officials told the official Wafa news agency that three civilians were hit by Israeli fire.

Kefah Ja’ayyasah, a camp resident, said soldiers forcibly entered her home and locked the family inside.

“They took the young men of my family to the upper floor, and they left the women and children trapped in the apartment at the first floor,” she told Associated Press.

She claimed soldiers would not let her take food to the children and blocked an ambulance crew from entering the home when she yelled for help, before eventually allowing the family passage to a hospital.

[5 July 2023 04:48 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Smoke and flames rise above buildings after Israeli air airstrikes in Gaza City

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

[5 July 2023 04:43 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Israel launches air attack on Gaza Strip

Israeli forces launched an airstrike on the Gaza Strip in response to five rockets launched toward Israeli territory.

The Shehab news outlet reports strikes near al-Baydar, west of Gaza City, and in Beit Lahiyeh in the north of the strip.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

[5 July 2023 04:43 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Israel says it intercepted five rockets from Gaza

The Israeli army said militants in the Gaza Strip launched five rockets into Israel.

It said all of the rockets were “successfully intercepted”, but the launches raised the risk of fighting on a second front.

[5 July 2023 04:42 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Thousands flee Israel’s biggest West Bank military operation in decades

Thousands have fled Israel’s biggest military operation into the occupied West Bank in decades, as a car-ramming in Tel Aviv underlined the risk of violence spreading.

At least 12 Palestinians, including three children, have been killed and over 100 injured during Israel’s raid in the Jenin refugee camp which started with a drone strike on Monday.

The United Nations has said Israeli military bulldozers destroyed key roads, stopping ambulances from entering the camp, which has lost access to drinking water, electricity and in some areas food supplies.

“At this moment we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive activity in Jenin is not a one-time operation,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Bel Trew reports.

[5 July 2023 04:41 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live blog on Israel’s military operation in West Bank.

[5 July 2023 01:00 · Natalie Crockett]

We’re pausing our live coverage for the evening. We’ll bring you the latest updates as we get them.

[4 July 2023 23:00 · Reuters]

What is the significance of the Jenin refugee camp?

Jenin was the arena of some of the worst bloodshed during the second Intifada, which began after the collapse of US-backed peace talks in 2000 and escalated into an armed conflict between Israel and militant groups.

Jenin produced many of the suicide bombers who spearheaded the uprising and, to curb it, Israeli armoured forces carried out a devastating raid on its camp in April 2002 as part of a wider clampdown on areas where Palestinians had exercised limited self-rule under 1990s interim peace deals.

UN reports said 52 Palestinians died in Jenin, as many as half of them civilians, while Israel lost 23 soldiers, with over 400 homes demolished and over a quarter of the population left homeless, necessitating a reconstruction of the camp.

Two decades on, Israel has sounded alarms over the growing number of gunmen in Jenin and their stockpiling of munitions. Israel says the camp is a hub for planning and preparing militant attacks as well as a safe haven for fighters funded by Hamas or the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group.

Israel also says more than 50 shooting attacks have been carried out by Jenin-area militants since the beginning of 2023 and that almost half the population is affiliated either with Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

An Israeli armoured vehicle fires tear gas during an ongoing military operation in Jenin city (AFP via Getty Images)

The launch of two improvised rockets by militants near Jenin last month raised alarm in Israel that the West Bank could be going the way of the Gaza Strip, from which it withdrew settlers in 2005 and where armed Islamist factions are now in power.

Recent smaller-scale Israeli raids on Jenin, often employing squads of commandos disguised as Palestinians, have encountered difficulties given militants’ booby-trapping of the narrow lanes with bombs and quick detection of strangers in the camp.

That contributed to the size of the early July Israeli operation - involving over 1,000 soldiers - as well as Israel’s decision to back them up with rare drone strikes - in what it called a drive to destroy militant infrastructure and weapons.

Among sites the Israeli military says it has unearthed in Jenin is a command room with a bank of CCTV cameras covering the camp and a tunnel and armoury hidden underneath a mosque.

Israel also says it has captured 120 suspected militants and killed at least nine gunmen in Jenin. Of the 10 Palestinian fatalities, five have been confirmed as militants.

[4 July 2023 22:00 · Natalie Crockett]

Mapped: Where is the Jenin refugee camp?

The Israeli military launched one of its largest operations in the occupied West Bank for two decades on Monday, carrying out drone strikes and sending in hundreds of troops and armoured bulldozers to hit what it claims are “terrorist infrastructure targets and armed gunmen in the Jenin camp”.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the area had become “a safe haven for terrorists” and declared: “We are putting an end to this”.

The strikes were followed with a retaliation on Tuesday, when a suspected Palestinian car-ramming and stabbing attack injured at least eight people in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Islamist militant group Hamas claimed the attack was carried out by one of its members as a response to Israel’s ongoing military operation in the occupied West Bank.

Where is the Jenin camp and what damage has been inflicted? Read more from Joe Sommerlad here:

[4 July 2023 21:00 · Reuters]

Why is Israel attacking Jenin?

Since March 2022, Jenin and outlying areas in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank have drawn intensified raids ordered by Israel’s nationalist-religious government after a spate of Palestinian street attacks. The Jenin camp has long been a hotbed of militants with an array of light weapons and a growing arsenal of explosive devices. The Israeli military regularly accuses militant groups of basing fighters within densely populated urban areas such as refugee camps that date back to 1948. Many of the militants live in the camp, often with their families.

In January, Israeli forces killed seven gunmen and two civilians in a raid in Jenin. Last month, militants and Israeli troops waged an hours-long gunbattle in which six Palestinians were killed and over 90 wounded. Seven Israeli personnel were wounded by a landmine that crippled their armoured vehicle. Palestinian gunmen shot dead four Israelis near a Jewish settlement in retaliation, prompting settlers to rampage through Palestinians towns, torching buildings and cars.

This slide into some of the worst violence since the Palestinians’ 2000-05 Intifada (uprising) comes amid a prolonged absence of peace talks envisaging Palestinian statehood, an increasingly weak Palestinian political leadership and a steady expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied land under Israel’s most hardline nationalist government ever.

(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)