The United Nations demanded an “immediate” end to Israel’s large-scale, deadly military operation in the West Bank on Thursday, with the UN’s humanitarian chief expressing deep concern and stating that the suffering in Gaza is “beyond what any human being should have to endure.”
The Israeli military announced the deaths of seven Palestinian militants on the second day of the operation, bringing the total number of fatalities to at least 16 in 48 hours.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned against military operations near hospitals, highlighting severe damage to infrastructure, and power and telecommunications outages in some areas.
The Israeli army launched this “anti-terrorist” operation on Wednesday, deploying armoured columns to Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas, as well as refugee camps near these cities in the northern West Bank, where various Palestinian armed factions are active.
As of Thursday, the army reported nine militant deaths, and then announced the deaths of seven more: two in Jenin and five others, allegedly hiding in a mosque in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarm.
One of them was reportedly a senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas. The group confirmed his death.
However, according to Mustafa Takatqa, the head of the Tulkarm municipality, the five militants were killed when a “rocket hit a house”, without any prior battle.
The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry also reported 16 deaths, including two teenagers, aged 13 and 17, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. The Israeli army described them as “terrorists.”
Clashes continued in Jenin on Thursday afternoon, while Israeli soldiers operated in Tulkarm, according to AFP journalists.
The Israeli military withdrew from the Tubas refugee camp, according to eyewitnesses.
Israel aims to “put pressure on the resistance,” but any “Zionist escalation” only strengthens it, said Mohammed Mansour, a local politician in Tubas.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, at least 45 people have been arrested since Wednesday. The Israeli army reported ten arrests.
Israeli military operations in autonomous Palestinian territories, particularly the West Bank, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, are a daily occurrence, but rarely on such a large scale.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which is now in its 329th day, violence in the West Bank has escalated significantly.
The UN reported that at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the conflict. On the Israeli side, at least 19 people, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or operations, according to official Israeli data.
In the Gaza Strip, which continues to be bombarded by the Israeli military, with ground battles also taking place, the civil defence reported eight deaths in an Israeli strike in Gaza City on Thursday. Three other Palestinians were killed in a drone strike in Rafah, according to a medical source of the AFP.
The Israeli military announced that it had killed “dozens” of militants in the past 24 hours, including one who participated in the October 7 attack, according to their information.
Destroyed and levelled houses
The Israeli army is continuing ground operations in Rafah, the Khan Yunis area, and the Deir al-Balah district.
Displaced people returned to eastern parts of Deir al-Balah yesterday, finding their homes destroyed, some of them completely levelled.
“We lost everything,” said Ibrahim al-Tabaan, trying to gather belongings from the rubble.
“What has happened to our basic humanity?” asked Joyce Msuya, the acting head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), addressing the UN Security Council. She described the suffering in Gaza as “beyond what any human being should have to endure.”
The vast majority of the 2.4 million residents of the Palestinian enclave have been displaced, often multiple times, in the nearly 11 months of armed conflict.
In a glimmer of hope, a World Health Organisation official announced that the Israeli authorities have agreed to a series of “humanitarian pauses,” lasting three days each and several hours daily, in the Palestinian enclave, to begin a polio vaccination campaign on Sunday, after the first confirmed case in 25 years was identified.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Wednesday evening that this would not be a “ceasefire for polio vaccination” but a ‘release of certain areas’ in the Gaza Strip for this purpose.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Another 251 people were abducted that day, of whom 103 are still being held hostage in the Palestinian enclave, but 33 have been declared dead by the Israeli military.
Family members of hostages gathered near the Gaza border on the Israeli side yesterday, using loudspeakers to send messages to their loved ones, hoping they would be heard.
Regarding the US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, she reaffirmed her support for Israel’s right to defend itself and stated that she would not consider suspending arms sales to Israel if elected president in November.
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