Israeli forces withdraw from West Bank city of Jenin after ten days of operations

The Israeli Army stresses that it will “continue the operation until all objectives are achieved”

September 6 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Israeli military and security forces withdrew from the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday after ten days of operations in the area, the longest incursion by Israeli troops in the area in history, according to Palestinian media.

According to information collected by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, the military withdrew at dawn, although residents quoted by the newspaper have expressed fear that Israel could soon launch a new operation in the area.

Jenin Mayor Nidal al-Obaidi confirmed the withdrawal of Israeli forces and denounced that “the occupation cut off water and electricity” in the city. “The Palestinian government will need external help to rebuild the city and its refugee camp,” he added.

“We have begun to act to rebuild Jenin after the withdrawal of the occupation,” he stressed, adding that “the occupation has the habit of breaking into the camps again after each of its withdrawals,” as reported by the newspaper ‘Filastin’, linked to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The Israeli army, for its part, has published a statement on its website stressing that “the forces will continue the operation until all objectives are achieved,” without commenting on a possible withdrawal or redeployment of troops in the city.

He stressed that so far his forces have killed 14 “terrorists” – including the Hamas commander in Jenin – and arrested more than 30 “suspects”. In addition, they have destroyed “30 explosives placed on roads” during the operation, in which their drones have carried out four bombings against Jenin.

“Many terrorist infrastructures have been destroyed, including an underground weapons depot located beneath a mosque and a laboratory for the production of explosives. The forces have found and confiscated many weapons and other military materials,” he said.

The Israeli military operation takes place within the framework of a large-scale “anti-terrorist operation” in the northern West Bank, called ‘Summer Camps’, which includes raids in Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas, as well as in their refugee camps.

The Palestinian Authority-linked health ministry has put the number of dead at 39 and nearly 150 wounded in the West Bank since the start of the security operation, the largest in more than two decades since the end of the Second Intifada in 2002.

In his latest report, he stressed that 21 deaths have been confirmed in Jenin governorate to date, in addition to eight in Tubas, seven in Tulkarem and three in Hebron. “Among the martyrs are eight children and two elderly people,” he said on his Telegram account.

Israel has stepped up its operations in the West Bank following the attacks carried out on October 7 by Hamas and other Palestinian factions, which left some 1,200 people dead and nearly 250 kidnapped. However, the area had already recorded its highest death toll at the hands of Israeli troops in the previous nine months of 2023.

Palestinian authorities have estimated the number of dead at more than 690 and nearly 5,700 wounded as a result of these Israeli operations, which also launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip following the aforementioned attacks, which has so far left nearly 40,900 dead and around 94,500 wounded.