(Jenin) The Israeli army carried out a new muscular operation on Sunday in the area of Jenin, a stronghold of armed Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank from which the perpetrators of two deadly attacks in Tel Aviv originated.
Posted at 9:01 a.m.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, a 40-year-old widow and mother of six succumbed to her wounds inflicted by gunfire from Israeli soldiers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Wafa news agency.
Early in the morning, Israeli soldiers launched operations in the areas of Tulkarem and Jenin, where fire was exchanged between Palestinians and the military, an Israeli security source told AFP, reporting 20 arrests.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 10 Palestinians were injured, including three in Jenin and four in Tulkarem. The army reported no injuries in its ranks.
PHOTO JAAFAR ASHTIYEH, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
An injured man is transported to the Palestinian refugee camp of Nur Shams, near Tulkarem.
“The State of Israel has gone on the offensive […] and will do whatever is necessary to defeat terrorism. We will settle accounts with all those who are linked, directly or indirectly, to the “deadly” attacks that have hit Israel since March 22, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Far from the Jenin region, near Husan in the south of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, the Palestinian Ghada Sabatine hit by Israeli fire received first aid on the spot from the soldiers before being transported by the Crescent Palestinian rouge in a hospital near Bethlehem. She died there after losing “a lot of blood”, according to medical sources.
The military confirmed opening fire on the woman’s “lower body” near Husan, saying she was “suspiciously” heading towards soldiers despite “warning shots”.
“A difficult day”
In this tense context, the Israeli authorities reported “vandalism” on Joseph’s tomb in Nablus in the West Bank. For Jews, this tomb is the burial place of the biblical patriarch Joseph, one of the 12 sons of Jacob, but for Muslims, it is that of a local Muslim religious figure.
Since March 22, Israel has been hit by four attacks, the first two perpetrated by Israeli Arabs linked to the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS) and the last two by Palestinians from the Jenin area. These attacks resulted in a total of 14 deaths.
According to an AFP tally, 11 Palestinians, including assailants, have been killed in violence since that date.
The latest attack in Israel on Thursday claimed the lives of three Israelis — Eitam Megini and Tomer Morad, childhood friends in their twenties, and Barak Lufan, a 35-year-old father of three — right in the heart of the Tel-Aviv metropolis. A dozen people were injured, some of whom are still hospitalized.
The funerals of the three men are scheduled for the afternoon in the city of Kfar Saba (center) and at Kibbutz Ginosar (north).
“It’s a difficult day, a day when we are going to bury the three victims of the Tel Aviv attack,” said Mr. Bennett, who went to the bedside of the wounded.
Demonstration in support of Jenin
“We will do whatever it takes, whatever is necessary, for as long and wherever necessary to restore security,” Israeli army chief Aviv Kochavi warned.
He was speaking shortly before a first Israeli military operation launched on Saturday in Jenin, during which a Palestinian fighter from the armed Islamic Jihad movement was killed.
The Islamist movements of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have thousands of fighters in the Gaza Strip but also many members in refugee camps in the West Bank, had welcomed the anti-Israeli attacks.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the secular Fatah party, condemned them.
Later Sunday, a demonstration is planned in the center of Ramallah, a city in the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority is based, in support of the people of Jenin.