Drone strikes were used over a densely populated area to target terrorist groups, killing at least five people
On the night between Sunday and Monday, the Israeli army launched a major military operation against the refugee camp in the city of Jenin in the West Bank, the area occupied by Israel since 1967 and which the Palestinians claim as their lands. A large number of soldiers and armored vehicles, and above all, aerial bombardment by drones, were used in the operation. At least five people were killed, and it is not known if they were among the civilian population or among the militiamen living in the camp, and there are dozens of wounded.
The army described the operation as “a large-scale anti-terror action in Jenin”. It covered the city of Jenin but focused particularly on the refugee camp on its outskirts, where 14,000 people live densely packed in less than half a square kilometre. Believes That hundreds of fighters from various Palestinian armed groups, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are finding sanctuary in the Jenin camp.
The IDF said the raid used a number of forces equivalent to a “brigade,” which refers to at least 1,000-2,000 soldiers. However, what caused the bulk of the destruction, and constituted one of the most prominent elements of the operation, was the use of drones, which bombed various locations in the camp from above.
Drone strikes had not been used in operations in the West Bank for years, before the far-right Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu resumed their use this month. The army said it bombed a “military headquarters” used by a local armed group, and then carried out targeted bombing operations on various targets inside the camp.
Some Palestinian witnesses described the process as more random. said Khaled Al-Ahmad, an ambulance driver Reuters He said that there was a “real war” in the Jenin camp, and that “every time ambulances left, five to seven cars came back full of wounded.”
However, groups of Palestinian militants inside the camp responded violently to the operation. Local members of the Islamic Jihad movement, known as the Jenin Brigade, said they attacked several Israeli APCs with explosive weapons.
For more than a year now, the level of clashes in the West Bank has increased dramatically. Just last week, the Israeli army was involved in a major clash near the Jenin refugee camp, using military helicopters to shoot down Palestinian militants.
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