By Chris Muhizi for MCN Monday July 3rd/2023.
(REUTERS):On Monday night, Israeli troops carried out a drone strike in the West Bank city of Jenin for the second time in less than two weeks as part of an operation that sparked a gunfight that lasted into the morning and claimed the lives of at least three individuals.
The Jenin Brigades, a unit made up of various terrorist organizations headquartered in the city’s vast refugee camp, said it was engaged the Israeli forces as gunfire and explosions sounds could still be heard reverberating throughout the city hours after the raid and drones were audibly flying overhead.
Around 14,000 people live in this tightly populated area, which is less than half a square kilometer in size, and at least six drones could be seen buzzing above the city and the nearby camp.
The operation was described as “a new war crime against our defenseless people” by a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The intended structure, according to the Israeli military, served as a “advanced observation and surveillance center,” a storage location for weapons and explosives, as well as a coordination and communications center for the extremist militants.
Yoav Gallant, the Israeli minister of defense, claimed his country’s armed forces were “closely monitoring the behavior of our opponents.
“The defense establishment is prepared for every contingency.”
Monday’s dawn in Jenin was accompanied by chants to assist the combatants coming from mosque loudspeakers as dense, black smoke from burning tires lit by locals swirled through the streets.
The refugee camp situation, according to Palestinian ambulance driver Khaled Alahmad, “is a real war.” Every time we drive in five to seven ambulances and we return full of injured people, there are strikes from the sky directed at the camp.
A further man was killed in the city of Ramallah after being shot in the head at a checkpoint, according to the Palestinian health ministry, who also reported that at least three people had been killed and 27 injured in Jenin.
In what it termed as a comprehensive counterterrorism operation in the West Bank, the Israeli military claimed its forces hit a facility that housed the Jenin Brigades fighters’ command center.
The Israeli military had not employed drone strikes in the West Bank since 2006 until last month, when one was conducted on June 21 close to Jenin. However, a military spokesman cautioned that given the violence’s widening scope and the burden on ground forces, such measures might still be used.
He told reporters, “We’re severely stretched. The scale is the reason. Again, in our opinion, reducing friction will be achieved by doing this, he added, adding that the strikes were based on “precise intelligence”.
The apparent size of the raid, however, highlighted Jenin’s significance in the unrest that has erupted throughout the occupied West Bank for more than a year.
In the refugee camp, hundreds of militant fighters from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah are stationed. They are armed with a variety of weaponry that have been smuggled into the West Bank or taken from Israeli soldiers, as well as a growing stockpile of explosives.
