Israel launches large-scale West Bank raid as minister calls for Gaza-style operation

(CNN) — Israel’s military carried out raids and airstrikes in multiple parts of the occupied West Bank early Wednesday, killing at least 11 Palestinians in an offensive Israel says is its most expansive in years.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had launched a large counter-terror operation overnight with the Israel Security Agency (ISA) in the areas of Jenin and Tulkarem in the north of the West Bank.

Early indications showed a significant, combined Israeli operation, involving drones and bulldozers, military and security forces, four battalions of the Israel Border Police, and an elite unit of undercover troops.

Video obtained by CNN showed bulldozers tearing up a street in a built up area of Tulkarem, and also moving in convoy through Jenin. Additional footage released by Israel’s military showed what it said was a strike on a militant operations room in Nur Shams, a refugee camp near Tulkarem.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the operation had been staged to “thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructure,” claiming that Iran was working to establish an “eastern front” against Israel.

“We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps are required,” he wrote on social media. “This is a war for all terms and purposes and we must win it.”

The operation comes as Israel steps up its military operations in the West Bank, where clashes have become more frequent since Israel began its war in Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The IDF’s international spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said in a briefing that Israel had identified “a systematic strategy in Iran” of smuggling weapons and explosives into the West Bank.

“Specifically, about Jenin and Tulkarm, we’ve seen over 150 shooting and explosive attacks originated from these areas alone over the past year,” Shoshani said on Wednesday.

The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry condemned the “violation and crimes” by Israel, “especially the ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip and the targeting of the northern West Bank.”

Palestinian deaths were reported in the towns of Tubas and Jenin, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS). Later, the Ministry of Health said a Palestinian had been killed by gunfire in the town of Kafr Dan in Jenin district. The death toll rose to at least 11, according the latest statement from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

At least two of those killed in Jenin were as a result of Israeli military fire and three others were killed in a drone strike on a vehicle on the outskirts of Jenin, according to the PRCS. It added that one person was critically injured in the strike.

On Wednesday, the United Nations chief called on Israel to immediately cease its military operation in the West Bank.

The Israeli action was “fueling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank and further undermining the Palestinian Authority,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, according to a statement by his spokesperson.

“Only an end to the occupation and a return to a meaningful political process that will establish a two-state solution will bring a end to the violence,” Guterres posted on X.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on X that Israel’s operation “must not constitute the premises of a war extension from Gaza, including full-scale destruction.”

The Israeli foreign minister’s comparison of the operation with Gaza, particularly regarding the evacuation of Palestinians, “threatens to fuel further instability,” he said.

Medical facilities besieged

The Palestinian Ministry of Health warned that the Israeli military’s operation has impacted hospitals with reports that Israeli forces have besieged several medical facilities in Jenin and obstructed the movement of ambulances.

In a statement, the ministry said Israeli forces blocked roads to Ibn Sina hospital with mounds of dirt, surrounded the government hospital in Jenin, and besieged the Red Crescent Society and the Patient’s Friends Society.

“Dozens of patients are currently being treated in government, private, and charitable hospitals in Jenin,” the ministry said, adding that the lives of patients and medical staff are under threat.

Mahmoud Al-Saadi, a spokesperson for the PRCS, told CNN that the Israeli military was limiting the movement of ambulances and that “getting to hospital in Jenin is difficult.”

Video obtained by CNN showed Israeli military vehicles at the entrance of the Jenin Government Hospital, appearing to obstruct an entrance, and surrounding the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin.

IDF spokesperson Shoshani said troops have “no plan to seize or capture” the hospital in Jenin, but have stationed troops to prevent “terrorists” from seeking shelter and operating from there. “We’re trying to prevent the hospitals from becoming a war zone,” he said.

Director of Jenin Government Hospital, Wissam Bakr, told CNN earlier on Wednesday that “three Israeli military vehicles (were) at the entrance of the hospital” and that the Governor of Jenin had been informed of Israeli troops intention to “to storm the Jenin Government hospital.”

‘General mobilization’

The Islamic Jihad militant group condemned the Israeli military’s “comprehensive aggression” on areas of the occupied West Bank, referring to it as an “open and undeclared war.”

In a separate statement, the group’s military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, said it targeted and shot down an Israeli drone near Jenin. The group said its fighters are targeting Israeli forces with “heavy volleys of direct bullets.”

CNN has not been able to verify the claim by Al-Quds Brigade.

Meanwhile, Hamas called for a “general mobilization… against the occupation and its settlers everywhere on our occupied land.” The group said the Israeli operation was “extensive” and accused the Israeli military of “deliberate destruction of infrastructure using large military forces accompanied by aerial bombardment from drones and warplanes.”

Israel has occupied the West Bank since seizing the territory from Jordan in 1967. In the decades since, it has expanded Jewish settlements in the West Bank, considered illegal under international law, despite signing a series of peace agreements with the Palestinians in the 1990s.

The Palestinian health ministry reported on Tuesday that 652 Palestinians, including 150 children, have been killed in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since October 7, with over 5,400 others injured.

Israel condemns ‘terror’ attack by settlers

As well as raids by the Israeli military, armed Jewish settlers have also launched frequent attacks on Palestinian towns. On August 15, more than 70 armed settlers attacked the village of Jit, firing live bullets at residents and setting several homes, cars, and other property on fire, according to the head of the village council, Nasser Sedda.

One resident told CNN he had seen some 30 settlers – armed and dressed in black – jumping over the fence to his house, breaking windows and throwing Molotov cocktails inside.

Top Israeli officials, including from the IDF, have condemned the attack on Jit. One Palestinian was killed by gunfire and another injured in the attack, according to the IDF – which says it is investigating the death with the Israel Securities Authority.

“This is a very serious terror incident in which Israelis set out to deliberately harm the residents of the town of Jit, and we failed by not succeeding to arrive earlier to protect them,” the IDF Central Command Commanding Officer MG Avi Blut said in a statement Wednesday.

Three adults have been detained under an administrative order and additional arrests are planned, the statement added. Two rapid response team members have also been dismissed and their weapons have been confiscated because they were at the scene “without authorization, dressed in uniform, and acted contrary to the authority defined for the members of the rapid response team,” the statement said.

The Israeli army said the investigation into the incident “is still ongoing, and it will not be closed until we bring the perpetrators to justice.”

In a landmark advisory opinion in July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court, said the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal and that it should end its “unlawful presence” there “as rapidly as possible.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.