Israel launched a large-scale attack with raids and bombings in the occupied West Bank, killing at least nine Palestinians and sealing off the city of Jenin, according to Palestinian officials.
Since October 7, Israel has been carrying out nearly daily raids in the West Bank. The IDF says the aim is to prevent potential attacks against its citizens, while Palestinians in the West Bank fear that Israel intends to escalate the conflict and forcibly displace them.
The Palestinian authorities report that more than 600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank in the past 10 months.
An IDF official said that the 9 dead were all members of military organizations and that today’s raids were the first phase of a larger operation aimed at “preventing attacks against Israelis.”
The Palestinian authorities reported exchanging fire with Israeli troops, while the governor of Jenin said that Israeli forces had surrounded the city, blocking exits, entrances, and access to hospitals and causing damage to infrastructure.
Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war. Since then, it has built dozens of settlements across the West Bank, where over 500,000 Jewish settlers live.
