Israel’s military carried out raids and airstrikes in multiple parts of the occupied West Bank early Wednesday, killing at least nine Palestinians in an offensive Israel says is its most expansive in years.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had launched a large counter-terror operation overnight with the Israel Security Agency (ISA) in the areas of Jenin and Tulkarem in the north of the West Bank.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the operation had been staged to “thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructure,” claiming that Iran was working to establish an “eastern front” against Israel.
“We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps are required,” he wrote on social media. “This is a war for all terms and purposes and we must win it.”
The operation comes as Israel steps up its military operations in the West Bank, where clashes have become more frequent since Israel began its war in Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7.
The IDF’s international spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said in a briefing that Israel had identified “a systematic strategy in Iran” of smuggling weapons and explosives into the West Bank.
“Specifically, about Jenin and Tulkarm, we’ve seen over 150 shooting and explosive attacks originated from these areas alone over the past year,” Shoshani said on Wednesday.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry condemned the “violation and crimes” by Israel, “especially the ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip and the targeting of the northern West Bank.”
Early indications showed a significant, combined Israeli operation, involving drones and bulldozers, military and security forces, four battalions of the Israel Border Police, and an elite unit of undercover troops. Video obtained by CNN showed bulldozers tearing up a street in a built up area of Tulkarem, and also moving in convoy through Jenin.
Additional footage released by Israel’s military showed what it said was a strike on a militant operations room in Nur Shams, a refugee camp near Tulkarem.
Palestinian deaths were reported in the towns of Tubas and Jenin, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
At least two of those killed in Jenin were as a result of Israeli military fire and three others were killed in a drone strike on a vehicle on the outskirts of Jenin, according to the PRCS. It added that one person was critically injured in the strike.
Earlier, a joint total from the PRCS and the ministry put the death toll at at least 10.
Medical facilities besieged
The Palestinian Ministry of Health warned that the Israeli military’s operation has impacted hospitals with reports that Israeli forces have besieged several medical facilities in Jenin and obstructed the movement of ambulances.
In a statement, the ministry said Israeli forces blocked roads to Ibn Sina hospital with mounds of dirt, surrounded the government hospital in Jenin, and besieged the Red Crescent Society and the Patient’s Friends Society.
“Dozens of patients are currently being treated in government, private, and charitable hospitals in Jenin,” the ministry said, adding that the lives of patients and medical staff are under threat.
Mahmoud Al-Saadi, a spokesperson for the PRCS, told CNN that the Israeli military was limiting the movement of ambulances and that “getting to hospital in Jenin is difficult.”
Video obtained by CNN showed Israeli military vehicles at the entrance of the Jenin Government Hospital, appearing to obstruct an entrance, and surrounding the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin.
IDF spokesperson Shoshani said troops have “no plan to seize or capture” the hospital in Jenin, but have stationed troops to prevent “terrorists” from seeking shelter and operating from there. “We’re trying to prevent the hospitals from becoming a war zone,” he said.
Director of Jenin Government Hospital, Wissam Bakr, told CNN earlier on Wednesday that “three Israeli military vehicles [were] at the entrance of the hospital” and that the Governor of Jenin had been informed of Israeli troops intention to “to storm the Jenin Government hospital.”
‘General mobilization’
The Islamic Jihad militant group condemned the Israeli military’s “comprehensive aggression” on areas of the occupied West Bank, referring to it an “open and undeclared war.”
In a separate statement, the group’s military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, said it targeted and shot down an Israeli drone near Jenin. The group said its fighters are targeting Israeli forces with “heavy volleys of direct bullets.”
CNN has not been able to verify the claim by Al-Quds Brigade.
Meanwhile, Hamas called for a “general mobilization… against the occupation and its settlers everywhere on our occupied land.” The group said the Israeli operation was “extensive” and accused the Israeli military of “deliberate destruction of infrastructure using large military forces accompanied by aerial bombardment from drones and warplanes.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since seizing the territory from Jordan in 1967. In the decades since, it has expanded Jewish settlements in the West Bank, considered illegal under international law, despite signing a series of peace agreements with the Palestinians in the 1990s.
The Palestinian health ministry reported on Tuesday that 652 Palestinians, including 150 children, have been killed in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since October 7, with over 5,400 others injured.
As well as raids by the Israeli military, armed Jewish settlers have also launched frequent attacks on Palestinian towns. On August 15, settlers attacked the village of Jit, where a resident told CNN he had seen some 30 settlers – armed and dressed in black – jumping over the fence to his house, breaking windows and throwing Molotov cocktails inside.
In a landmark advisory opinion in July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court, said the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal and that it should end its “unlawful presence” there “as rapidly as possible.”
