In an operation that sparked a gunfight that lasted into the morning and resulted in the deaths of at least three persons, Israeli troops carried out drone strikes in the West Bank city of Jenin for the second time in less than two weeks overnight on Monday.
Hours after the hit, gunshots and explosions could still be heard around the city, and drones could be clearly heard flying overhead. The Jenin Brigades, a group of militant organizations located in the city’s sizable refugee camp, claimed to be engaging Israeli forces.
The Palestinian health ministry confirmed at least three people had been killed and 27 wounded in Jenin, while another man was killed in the city of Ramallah after being shot in the head at a checkpoint.
The Israeli military said its forces struck a building that served as a command centre for fighters from the Jenin Brigades in what it described as an extensive counterterrorism effort in the West Bank.
It started with multiple air strikes. Videos published on social media showed smoke rising from a residential block.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said at least three Palestinians were killed and more than 20 others wounded in the ongoing raid.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they were striking “terrorist infrastructure in the Jenin area”.
“We will not stand by idle while terrorists continue to harm civilians using Jenin Camp as a hideout,” they said, adding that the camp was a “terrorist stronghold”.
The Jenin Battalion, a military umbrella that includes armed men from Palestinian groups Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said: “We will fight the occupation forces until the last breath and bullet, and we work together and unified from all factions and military formations.”
Dozens of armed, masked Palestinians were deployed in the alleys of the camp.
Ahmed Zaki, a resident of the camp, told the BBC that “columns of Israeli army vehicles penetrated the outskirts of the camp from several streets”.
Palestinian ambulance driver Khaled Alahmad said: “What is going on in the refugee camp is a real war.”
“There were strikes from the sky targeting the camp, every time we drive in around five to seven ambulances and we come back full with injured people,” he told Reuters.
The Israeli military utilized attack helicopters in the West Bank for the first time in years last month, killing at least six Palestinians during a raid into the Jenin camp.
In that incident, seven Israeli troops and border police officers sustained injuries.
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