Israel Presses West Bank Raids That Palestinians Say Killed 30

03 September 2024, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: Israeli armored vehicles drive on a street during a raid in Tulkarem, amid a large-scale military offensive launched a week earlier in the West Bank. (dpa)
03 September 2024, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: Israeli armored vehicles drive on a street during a raid in Tulkarem, amid a large-scale military offensive launched a week earlier in the West Bank. (dpa)
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Israel Presses West Bank Raids That Palestinians Say Killed 30

03 September 2024, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: Israeli armored vehicles drive on a street during a raid in Tulkarem, amid a large-scale military offensive launched a week earlier in the West Bank. (dpa)
03 September 2024, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: Israeli armored vehicles drive on a street during a raid in Tulkarem, amid a large-scale military offensive launched a week earlier in the West Bank. (dpa)

Israeli forces were operating Tuesday in the northern West Bank, a week into military raids in the occupied territory that the Palestinian health ministry said killed at least 30.

In the latest bloodshed, two Palestinian men were killed in "Israeli aggression on the Dhnaba suburb, east of Tulkarem", the Ramallah-based ministry said in a statement.

In separate violence on Tuesday, a 16-year-old girl was killed by the Israeli army in the town of Kfar Dan, in Jenin governorate, the ministry said.

During "counter-terrorism" operations in the area of Jenin, troops began encircling two structures in which "armed terrorists" had taken shelter, the military told AFP.

"During the encircling of the structures, the terrorists opened fire at IDF soldiers in the area, and in response the soldiers fired back at a suspect who observed the forces in the area, in order to remove a threat," it said.

The military said it was aware of reports a 16-year-old girl had been killed during the exchange of fire.

An Israeli air strike overnight that the military said targeted fighters in Tulkarem killed a 15-year-old Palestinian, said a hospital source in the city.

In all, there had been "33 martyrs and about 130 wounded in the West Bank since Wednesday" when the Israeli military launched a series of coordinated raids, a ministry statement said.

Nineteen have been killed in Jenin governorate, seven in Tulkarem and four in Tubas, it said.

The death toll of 33 given by the ministry includes three deaths in the Hebron area in the southern West Bank, in incidents unrelated to the raids in the north.

- Empty streets -

The military on Monday said its forces had killed 14 militants in Jenin and apprehended "25 terrorists".

An AFP correspondent said the streets were empty and shops were closed in Jenin on Tuesday, with Israeli armored vehicles and bulldozers as well as ambulances among the few vehicles on the roads.

The correspondent said paved streets had been torn up by Israeli bulldozers in several areas, which the army says is a way to detonate explosive devices hidden under the surface.

The Jenin city council said 70 percent of roads and streets have been destroyed since the start of the raid.

Bashir Matahen, a municipality spokesman, said about 20 kilometers of water, sewage, communications and electricity lines were destroyed, including 80 percent of the city's water pipes.

The municipality lacked the funds to carry out all the necessary repairs, he told AFP.

Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp -- where army bulldozers destroyed infrastructure -- have long been a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

The military carries out regular incursions into Palestinian population centers, but such operations are rarely conducted simultaneously as in the northern West Bank in recent days.

In Tulkarem, near Jenin, the Israeli military said on Monday night that its aircraft struck a Palestinian militant cell "that shot at security forces during the counter-terrorism operation".

- Surging violence -

A medical source at the Tulkarem government hospital told AFP on Tuesday that a 15-year-old teenager was killed in the strike that also wounded his father and four others.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams handled several shrapnel injuries in Tulkarem, including one of its paramedics.

On Tuesday, Israeli military vehicles including bulldozers were seen on the streets of Tulkarem, where roads have also been damaged or destroyed, said an AFP journalist.

One man, holding a Palestinian flag, was standing defiantly in front of the bulldozers.

Violence in the Palestinian territory has surged since Hamas's October 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip, which is separated from the West Bank by Israeli territory.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 637 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the UN figures from last week.

At least 23 Israelis, including soldiers and police officers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, according to Israeli officials.



US Says Israel Must Improve Gaza's Humanitarian Situation or Risk Aid

 People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
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US Says Israel Must Improve Gaza's Humanitarian Situation or Risk Aid

 People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced people, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Israel must take urgent steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza to avoid legal action involving US military aid, according to news reports on Tuesday.

"We are writing now to underscore the US government's deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory," they wrote in an Oct. 13 letter to their Israeli counterparts, posted by an Axios reporter on X, according to Reuters.

The State Department and Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Israel's government also could not be immediately reached for comment.

The report comes as Israeli forces expand operations into northern Gaza amid ongoing concerns about access to humanitarian aid throughout the enclave and civilians' access to food, water and medicine.

US officials earlier this year said Israel may have violated international humanitarian law using US-supplied weapons during its military operation in Gaza.

This week's letter cited Section 620i of the Foreign Assistance Act, which restricts (prohibits) military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.

It also cited a National Security Memorandum that US President Joe Biden issued in February that requires the State Department to report to Congress on whether it finds credible Israel's assurances that its use of US weapons does not violate US or international law.