Israel continues raids in West Bank, arrests 25 people, Palestinian reports say


The Israeli army continued what it called a a new counter-terrorist operation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday, arresting at least 25 people over the past day, Palestinian media reported.

The total number of people killed since the start of the raid rose to 10, up from eight on Tuesday, and four more people were injured in Jenin, according to Palestinian officials cited by Wafa, the official Palestinian Authority news agency.

The Israeli offensive, in its second day, was not only aimed at Jenin.

On Wednesday, the army made arrests in Jenin, Ramallah, Hebron, Tulkarm and Bethlehem, officials said. Increased security at Israeli checkpoints throughout the territory has slowed or halted traffic; in one case a A 45-year-old woman died at a checkpoint outside Hebron while waiting to be admitted to a hospital, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

The mayor of Jenin, Mohammad Jarar, told Wafa that Israeli forces had held as many as 600 people overnight at Jenin’s state hospital, but they were allowed to leave on Wednesday morning. The news agency described how Israeli bulldozers blocked the hospital’s doors with soil from nearby streets.

Mr. Jarar also said people had been forced to flee their homes, a claim denied by Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman. “There is no evacuation order in Jenin,” he said.

Briefing reporters on the operation, Colonel Shoshani said the people at the hospital were temporarily detained to ensure they were not injured by explosives detonated by the army nearby.

Since a temporary cease-fire took effect in Gaza over the weekend, Israel has turned its attention to the West Bank, where tensions have risen as militants have gained power and Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians has increased.

Colonel Shoshani said the operation in the West Bank is similar in scope to the military conducted in August. In that ten-day raid in Jenin, 21 people were killed, according to Palestinian media and residents. It was one of the largest and deadliest attacks in the West Bank in recent years.

The colonel said the operation was Israel’s latest attempt to contain the militant attacks, many of which involved improvised explosive devices planted under both civilian streets and Israeli military vehicles.

“Our strategy is to fight these terrorists while allowing the civilian population to get on with their lives,” Colonel Shoshani said.

In a series of social networks posts on Wednesday, Roland Friedrich, West Bank director of the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians, said the Israeli operation was expected to “last for days” and that advanced weapons were being used on Jenin, including airstrikes.



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