Deadly Israeli raids in West Bank as Gaza war rages on
Israel launched a large-scale operation Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, where the army said it killed Palestinian fighters, as the nearly 11-month-old Gaza war showed no signs of abating.
The military said its forces killed nine militants while the Palestinian Red Crescent reported 10 deaths in the West Bank, where violence has surged during the war sparked by Gaza rulers Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
The war has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, and caused widespread destruction and displacement.
Early Wednesday, Israel launched coordinated raids across four northern West Bank cities -- Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem -- where the military has focused much of its recent operations against armed groups.
Columns of armoured vehicles entered two refugee camps, in Tulkarem and Tubas, as well as Jenin.
By midday, they were blocking entrances to the towns and camps, AFP photographers said, with soldiers firing at the camps from which gunfire and explosions were heard.
The Red Crescent said Israeli forces killed 10 people and wounded 22 others in the raids.
The medical organisation's West Bank chief Younes al-Khatib said ambulances came under Israel fire and «one of our staffers was hit».
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia and headed home to «follow up on the latest developments in light of the Israeli aggression», Palestinian official media said.
Jordan's King Abdullah II told visiting US lawmakers a Gaza truce was needed «to stop the cycle of violence in the region», according to a royal statement.
Violence meanwhile raged in the Gaza Strip, where the civil defence agency reported at least 12 dead in Israeli strikes, and in Lebanon where the Israeli military said it killed a «significant» Palestinian militant.
Mediation efforts seeking an end to the Gaza war continued in Qatar where an Israeli delegation was present Wednesday, said a source close to the negotiations.
- Israeli minister declares 'war' -
In the West Bank, a Tulkarem municipality official told AFP the scale of the destruction was «very big».
Israeli forces «attacked the infrastructure, in particular in the city of Tulkarem and the Nur Shams camp» and «destroyed» water and sewage systems, Hakim Abu Safiyeh said.
Israeli bulldozers dug up asphalt from the streets, with the army saying it was looking for roadside bombs.
A spokesman said troops were exchanging fire with militants. The army reported no casualties on its side.
The military carries out daily raids in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, but it is rare for these to happen in multiple cities simultaneously.
Wednesday's operation, according to army spokesman Nadav Shoshani, was not «extremely different» from regular activity.
But Foreign Minster Israel Katz said the military was «operating in full force since last night» in what he called «a war» aiming to «dismantle Iranian-Islamic terror infrastructure».
In a post on X, he accused Iran -- Israel's main regional foe which backs Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon -- of seeking to «establish an eastern front against Israel» in the West Bank.
Since October 7, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 650 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, and Palestinian attacks have killed at least 19 Israelis, officials say.
The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions on an Israeli settler group that the State Department said was involved in violence against Palestinians and had a role in the forced displacement of some 250 villagers earlier this year.
The UN Human Rights Office said the latest Israeli raids risk «deepening the already catastrophic situation» in the West Bank.
- Fleeing Gaza hospital -
Last week, the army announced it had killed a senior Palestinian militant in Lebanon, accusing him of «directing attacks and smuggling weapons» to the West Bank.
Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian Islamist movement allied with Hamas which has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, early Wednesday denounced an «open war» by Israel.
«With this aggression... the occupier wants to impose a new state of affairs on the ground to annex the West Bank,» a statement said.
Israel's military later said a strike in the Syria-Lebanon border area killed a «significant» Islamic Jihad operations officer. A Syrian war monitor reported four dead.
Hamas late Tuesday reiterated a call for Palestinians in the West Bank to «rise up» following widely condemned comments by a far-right Israeli minister.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a settler and proponent of West Bank annexation, said he would build a synagogue at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound if he could.
In Gaza, Palestinians were on the move following Israeli evacuation orders.
One of the latest targeted the area around Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in Deir el-Balah, from which «nearly 650 patients have fled», Doctors Without Borders said.
The charity said it «opened a field hospital and started receiving patients amid a severe lack of supplies and resources».
Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,534 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The remains of Shaked Dahan, an Israeli soldier killed on October 7, have been recovered from Gaza, his family's hometown said Wednesday.
He was one of 251 people seized by Palestinian militants during the attack, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 33 the military says are dead.
© Agence France-Presse
