Hundreds of Jenin residents fled their homes in the West Bank city on Thursday, prompted by messages from drones equipped with loudspeakers, witnesses said, as the Israeli army demolished rows of houses on the third day of a major operation.
The operation, involving large convoys of vehicles supported by helicopters and drones, was launched in the first week of a Gaza ceasefire that saw the first exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails since a brief truce in November 2023.
Israeli officials said the operation in Jenin targeted what the military said were Iranian-backed militant groups in a refugee camp near the city, which for years has been a major hub for Palestinian armed groups.
“We must be ready to continue in the Jenin camp that will bring him to second place,” said Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the head of the Israeli army, said in a statement.
Armored bulldozers dug up roads, making it difficult to get around the city, but hundreds of people left their homes in the camp, dragging suitcases or carrying plastic bags of their belongings after they said they heard messages to evacuate.
“Yesterday we didn’t want to leave, we were at home,” said 16-year-old Hussam Saadi. “Today they sent a drone into our neighborhood, telling us to leave the camp and they were going to blow it up.”
The Israeli army denied that it had told residents to leave their homes. It said this “allows any resident who chooses to leave the area to do so via safe and organized routes with the protection of Israeli security forces”.
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As the operation continued, the sound of gunfire and the constant buzzing of drones flying over the refugee camp could be heard. In the city, there was little movement on the streets.
Footage released by the Israeli army shows soldiers detonating what appeared to be roadside explosives.
Overnight on Wednesday, Israeli troops killed two armed men barricaded in a building in Burqin, outside Jenin, after a shootout. The two are suspected of carrying out an attack near the Palestinian village of al-Funduq earlier this month, in which three Israelis were killed.
Both were taken over by the armed wing of Hamas, which has a strong presence in the refugee camp, a crowded place for descendants of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war.
In total, 12 Palestinians have been killed and 40 wounded since the start of the operation, Palestinian health officials said.
The incursion, the third major Israeli military operation in Jenin in less than two years, prompted warnings from France and Jordan against an escalation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where violence has risen since the start of the Gaza war. .
