Politics Israeli army begins major operation in the West Bank
Israel's army began a major operation in the occupied West Bank last night. According to the military, anti-terror operations are underway in the northern towns of Jenin and Tulkarem, which are considered strongholds of Palestinian militants.
28.08.2024, 05:03
SDA
According to media reports, the army deployed numerous infantrymen as well as drones and snipers, destroyed infrastructure with bulldozers and closed all access routes to Jenin.
According to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah, two people were killed by gunfire in Jenin and several others were injured. Later, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported two more deaths in a drone attack by the Israeli military on a refugee camp near the village of Tubas. It remained unclear whether the dead were Palestinian militants. The army did not initially provide any detailed information about its operation.
According to the reports, it was a large-scale military operation; "Al-Jazeera" even spoke of the largest such operation by the Israeli army in the north of the West Bank for more than 20 years. According to the Arabic broadcaster, Palestinians attacked the soldiers with firearms and explosives in the refugee district of Nur Shams in Tulkarem, among other places. Clashes also took place in other villages in the West Bank.
Army said to have surrounded hospitals
The Wafa agency reported that a large number of military vehicles had driven into Jenin. According to "Al-Jazeera", the city was completely sealed off. According to the Israeli news website "ynet", people wanted by the security forces were to be arrested in refugee neighborhoods in Jenin and Tulkarem. According to Israeli and Palestinian media, the forces also surrounded hospitals in both cities and blocked ambulances. The army controlled access to the hospital buildings to prevent militants from entrenching themselves there, reported "ynet".
The already tense situation in the West Bank has worsened significantly since the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, which left 1,200 people dead and triggered the start of the Gaza war. Since then, more than 620 Palestinians have been killed there in Israeli military operations, armed clashes and attacks by extremists, according to data from the Ministry of Health in Ramallah that can hardly be independently verified. Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians also increased during this period.
In Jenin and Tulkarem in particular, there have been repeated raids by the Israeli army. According to the Ministry of Health, five people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the refugee district of Nur Shams in Tulkarem on Monday. According to the Israeli army, the bombing targeted Palestinian militants.
Reports of an Israeli drone attack in Lebanon
While there are repeated clashes between Israel's army and militant Palestinians in the West Bank, there are almost daily confrontations with the Hezbollah militia and other groups in the border region with Lebanon - with casualties on both sides. Lebanese security sources and the Hezbollah-affiliated television station Al-Manar have now reported a suspected Israeli drone attack on a truck in the north-east of Lebanon, around 100 kilometers from the border.
According to eyewitnesses, there were explosions after the attack and the truck may have been transporting weapons for Hezbollah. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, one person was injured. The area is considered a stronghold of the Shiite Hezbollah militia. There was initially no reaction to the incident from Israel.
Hostage freed from tunnel after apparently days of searching
The rescue of a hostage of the Islamist Hamas by Israeli special forces on Tuesday provided a glimmer of hope amid the ongoing violence in the Middle East. The soldiers found Kaid Farhan Alkadi in one of Hamas' many tunnels under the Gaza Strip. They had been combing the underground tunnel system for days beforehand, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an Israeli military representative. "We proceeded very carefully and thoroughly because we knew that we could encounter terrorists, hostages or booby traps," the informant was quoted as saying.
The newspaper "Haaretz" reported, citing the military, that Alkadi had heard the soldiers during the operation and called out to them. According to the army, he was unguarded.
This is the first time that Israeli units have been able to rescue a hostage alive from a Hamas tunnel. The seven previously freed hostages had been taken from houses in the Gaza Strip at a high cost in blood.
The hostage who has now been freed, a 52-year-old Bedouin, is currently being treated in hospital and is in good health, according to Israeli reports. Israeli politicians and relatives expressed great joy at his return after 326 days as a hostage.
"The whole Negev is celebrating!"
The Bedouin belong to the Arab minority in Israel, which often faces discrimination. Their number is estimated at around 250,000 across the country. Many of them live in the Negev desert in southern Israel. A relative told "ynet" after the liberation operation: "The whole Negev is celebrating!"
According to Israeli media, relatives described the man as emaciated after their reunion. He is said to have barely seen daylight for most of the time and witnessed a hostage die next to him.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Izchak Herzog spoke to Alkadi on the phone, who gave the politicians a message: "Do everything you can to bring people home. Work 24 hours a day and don't sleep until they come back," the freedman is said to have said in the conversation with Herzog, according to his office. "The people are suffering a lot, you can't imagine."
According to Israeli reports, Alkadi was kidnapped on October 7 from a kibbutz on the border with the Gaza Strip, where he worked as a security guard. According to Israeli media, he has eleven children.
Ceasefire efforts continue
In total, Palestinian terrorists abducted more than 250 people from Israel to the coastal area on October 7 last year. Following the release of dozens of hostages in the meantime, Israel estimates that Hamas still holds 108 hostages. It is unclear how many of them are still alive. The Israeli side assumes that a third of them are probably dead.
Meanwhile, the fighting in the Gaza Strip continues, as do efforts to achieve a ceasefire and release the remaining hostages. According to Israeli media reports, there are plans for an Israeli delegation to travel to the Qatari capital Doha for further talks on an agreement with Hamas. The indirect negotiations, in which Qatar, Egypt and the USA are mediating between the parties to the conflict, have been at a standstill for months.
