Israeli army kills 9 Palestinians in West Bank; About 3,000 escapes from refugee camp in Jenin
In one of the biggest operations in 20 years, the Israeli army killed roughly nine Palestinians in the occupied West Bank with drone strikes on Monday night. The impromptu attack that targeted the northern city of Jenin was launched under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government and was labelled as an "extensive counterterrorism effort. News agency AFP reported that around 3,000 had left their homes in the Jenin refugee camp since the start of the operation yesterday.
Firefights and explosions rocked the city and adjacent refugee camp, a militant stronghold home to about 18,000 people, as Palestinians threw rocks at soldiers and smoke from blasts and burning barricades darkened the sky. Nine people were killed and 100 others wounded, 20 of them seriously, the Palestinian health ministry said -- exceeding the toll of seven dead in an Israeli raid in Jenin two weeks ago which saw the rare use of helicopter missile fire. Netanyahu said in a statement that Israeli forces in "the nest of terrorists in Jenin" were "destroying command centres and seizing considerable weaponry".
The Palestinian foreign ministry called the escalation "an open war against the people of Jenin". The army said soldiers and gunmen exchanged fire at a mosque in the Jenin camp and that weapons and explosives were later found in the building. Israel had already stepped up operations in the northern West Bank, which has seen a recent spate of attacks on Israelis as well as Jewish settler violence against the Palestinians.
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