Israeli forces ‘block entrances to Jenin’ as deadly attack enters fourth day | News about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israeli forces blocked four main entrances to the city of Jenin and its refugee camp on Friday as a deadly assault on the city entered its fourth day, officials said.
Mansour Saadi, Jenin’s deputy governor, told the Wafa news agency that the Israeli army had “blocked all four main entrances to the city and its refugee camp with mounds of earth, preventing entry and exit.”
Palestinian sources said Israeli forces launched drones carrying loudspeakers at the refugee camp and imposed a curfew from Thursday night until Friday morning.
The Wafa news agency also reported that Israeli forces set fire to houses in the camp and blocked civil protection teams from reaching the area to put out the flames.
This comes after they issued threats to forcibly evacuate residents of the Jenin refugee camp on Thursday, as thousands of Palestinians fled amid deadly attack by Israeli forces.
In addition to Jenin province, Israeli forces have been stepping up their operation in the occupied West Bank since January 21, just days after the Gaza ceasefire came into effect on January 19.
By Thursday, the death toll from Israeli attacks had reached 12. Dozens were also wounded and detained.
On Friday, the situation at Jenin’s state hospital was “terrible”, Saadi said, with medical staff struggling to provide care to patients amid power and fuel shortages caused by the ongoing Israeli operation.
Al Jazeera journalist Hamdah Salhut said that many Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including Jenin, fear that Israel will do “as it did in Gaza”.
“Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes in the Jenin refugee camp,” said Salhut, who is reporting from Jordan because Al Jazeera has been banned from reporting in the occupied West Bank by the Palestinian Authority (PA).
“People there say that Israeli forces want to raze these Palestinian towns to the ground like they did in Gaza.”
Sources told Al Jazeera that Palestinian fighters were also fighting Israeli forcesshooting them with an explosive device while they were moving along Nazareth Street in Jenin. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
In some of the ongoing raids, PA security forces were involved in the search for Palestinian fighters, including in Tulkarem, Ramallah, Hebron and Qalqilya on Friday.
Armed clashes also broke out between Palestinian fighters and PA forces in the town of Yabad, west of Jenin.
PA security forces reportedly severely beat a number of Palestinian fighters after arresting them.
Later on Friday, the United Nations expressed grave concern over the Israeli military’s use of force in the West Bank, including methods “developed for warfare.”
“We are deeply concerned by the use of unlawful lethal force in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank,” UN Human Rights Office spokesman Thameen al-Kheetan said at a press briefing in Geneva.
“The deadly Israeli operations in recent days raise serious concerns about the unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, including methods and means developed for warfare, in violation of international human rights law, norms and standards applicable to law enforcement operations.”
Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said the Israeli government is shifting its focus from Gaza to the occupied West Bank.
He said the operations in Jenin and other parts of the occupied West Bank serve as a “distraction” from the failure of the Israeli government since October 7. Bishara added that the operation also creates an opportunity for Israel to in advance of annexation policies.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israeli forces have increased the size and frequency of their attacks in the occupied West Bank, killing nearly 900 Palestinians and injuring thousands.
Israel says eliminating armed Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank is part of its overarching goals for the Gaza war. United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese warns that the Israeli genocide would not be limited to Gaza if the military offensive in the West Bank does not end.
