Photo credit: Aljazeera
Raids and airstrikes were launched in multiple parts of the occupied West Bank were launched by Israel on Monday morning by Israel.
CNN reports that at least 10 Palestinians were killed in the offensive. The Israel Defense Forces said it had launched a large counter-terror operation with the Israel Security Agency in the north of the West Bank.
Earlier, indications had shown 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. Bulldozers tore up a street in a built-up area of Tulkarem and moved in convoy through Jenin.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the operation had been staged to “thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructure,” claiming that Iran was workimg 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. This is a war for all terms and purposes, and we must win it.”
Israel has stepped up its operations in the West Bank, where clashes have become more frequent since Israel began its war in Gaza in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, IDF’s international spokesperson, said in a briefing that Israel had identified “a systematic strategy in Iran” of smuggling weapons and explosions into the West Bank.
Shoshani said, “Specifically, about Jenin and Tulkarm, we’ve seen over 150 shooting and explosive attacks originated from these areas alone over the past year.”
Meanwhile, 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.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society and the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported ten deaths in the towns of Tubas and Jenin.
