Agency Report
Israeli strikes in the West Bank killed at least nine people, Palestinian health authorities said on Wednesday, in a major operation in the occupied territory.
Clashes with the Israeli military in the West Bank have risen sharply since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as Israel steps up operations against armed militant groups, including Iranian-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The latest military operation occurred Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarm in the West Bank.
Reuters was able to verify CCTV footage that showed military vehicles moving down a street in Jenin on Wednesday.
Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested in military raids, and at least 637 have been killed, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures. Many of them are armed fighters but others are stone-throwing youths or uninvolved civilians.
At least 30 Israelis – civilians and soldiers – have been killed by Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank in the same period, official Israeli figures showed.
Israel’s intense raids in the occupied West Bank, where they have continued to expand settlements during the Gaza war, shows that exerting control over the territory is a top priority, says Hassan Barari, a professor of international affairs at Qatar University.
“Israel’s objective number one is not Gaza, it is the West Bank. This is the heart of what they say is the biblical land,” Barari told Al Jazeera, adding that Israel aims to expel even more Palestinians.
However, the Israeli military is likely to continue facing fierce resistance from a new generation of hardened fighters who are just as committed to protecting their homeland, he says.
The Palestinians “born after the second Intifada are more insistent to realise their objectives, even by violent means”, Barari said, without putting their hopes in the Palestinian Authority (PA).