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 militants 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 armoured 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 kilometres 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 centres, 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.
