Tense situation in Jenin
Six dead in Israeli airstrike on West Bank
January 7, 2024, 1:11 p.m
Since Hamas’ attack on Israel, tensions in the West Bank have increased significantly. According to Palestinian information, six people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Jenin. The Israeli military speaks of an attack on Palestinian militants.
Six people have died in an Israeli airstrike in the West Bank. The killed Palestinians were between 18 and 29 years old, said the Palestinian Health Authority in Ramallah with. Another person was seriously injured. According to Palestinian reports, the air strike in the city of Jenin hit a citizens’ meeting. According to Israeli sources, those killed were terrorists. According to the Israeli army, a drone attack targeted a Palestinian who hurled explosives at emergency services during a raid in the city of Jenin. Media had previously reported clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli army at a gathering of some residents in Jenin.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa spoke of a massive deployment of Israeli forces in Jenin and other areas of the northern West Bank. Among other things, Israeli drones monitored the area from the air.
According to the army, an Israeli border police officer was also killed in the anti-terror operation in the city in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The officer “was in an emergency vehicle that was hit by an explosive device,” Israeli police said. According to Israeli media, the policewoman killed was 19 years old. According to the reports, a total of three security personnel were injured in the blast.
The situation in the West Bank is deteriorating
Regular raids by the Israeli military take place in Jenin and Nablus, both of which are administered by the Palestinian Authority and are considered strongholds of terrorist groups. Since the beginning of the Gaza war following the massacre by the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas on October 7, the Israeli army has carried out such raids in the West Bank even more frequently. According to the Ministry of Health, 318 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since then. A few days ago, Israel’s military announced that it had arrested 2,570 suspects since then. 1,300 of them have connections to Hamas.
Israel conquered, among other things, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War in 1967. Hundreds of thousands of settlers now live there among around three million Palestinians. The Palestinians are demanding the territories for their own state. The Israeli settlements are viewed by the United Nations as a major obstacle to a peace settlement because they hardly leave any contiguous territory for the Palestinians in a possible two-state solution.