Deadly Israeli raids in West Bank as Gaza genocide 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 genocide showed no signs of abating.

The military said its forces killed nine fighters. At the same time, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported ten deaths in the West Bank, where violence has surged since October 7.

The ongoing genocide has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’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.

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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 ten people and wounded 22 others in the raids.

The Israeli military said it killed three Palestinians in an air strike on Friday, the third day of a major operation in the occupied West Bank, claiming they were fighters of Hamas.

Witnesses told AFP the strike hit a car in the town of Zababdeh, southeast of the northern city of Jenin. An AFP journalist saw human remains being removed from the vehicle by paramedics.

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.