UN calls for “immediate” cessation of Israeli operations in occupied West Bank

The UN agency is sounding the alarm. The UN has called for a cessation “immediate” of Israel’s deadly operation in the occupied West Bank and judged that the suffering of the people of Gaza was “beyond what any human being should endure.” The Israeli army said on Thursday it had killed seven Palestinian fighters, on the second day of this large operation against armed groups, which has left at least 16 dead in forty-eight hours. Expressing its “deep concern”UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the social network X to his “immediate end”condemning “firmly the loss of human life, especially of minors.”

The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs has also warned of the ongoing “military operations near hospitals” and the “serious damage” inflicted on infrastructure, cutting off electricity and telecommunications in places. The Israeli army launched this operation called “anti-terrorist” Wednesday by sending its columns of armoured vehicles to Jenin, Tulkarem, Toubas and their refugee camps, in the north of the occupied West Bank, where armed groups are particularly active.

After having reported nine fighters killed, it claimed on Thursday to have killed seven others: two in Jenin and five entrenched “in a mosque” in the Nour Shams camp in Tulkarem, including a commander of the Islamic Jihad, a group allied with Hamas, who confirmed his death. But according to the governor of Tulkarem, the five men were killed “in a rocket attack on a house”without fighting. The Palestinian Health Ministry also reported 16 deaths, including, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, two teenagers aged 13 and 17, described as “terrorists” by the Israeli army.