Israeli Occupation Forces Launch Wide-Scale Aggression on West Bank

Israeli occupation forces launched an aggression, that is expected to be the largest in 22 years, on several governorates in the occupied West Bank late on Tuesday night. 

The Israeli military command said that its forces had initiated a “wide-scale operation” in the governates of Tulkarm and Jenin, targeting Resistance fighters. 

At least two Palestinians have been martyred since the start of the incursion on Jenin and four others in a nearby village according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. In Tubas an Israeli drone strike killed four Palestinians and injured others. Nearing Wednesday morning, an Israeli strike targeted a vehicle to the south of Jenin killing another 3 Palestinians.

In a statement, the PRC underscored that a total of 10 Palestinians have been martyred across the West Bank since the launch of large-scale aggression which started on Tuesday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said that Israeli occupation forces are blocking emergency workers from recovering the bodies of the martyrs who were killed in Tubas. 

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the two martyrs in Jenin are Qassam Mohammad Jabarin and Issam Walif Balo’ut. Three others were injured in confrontations, Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported. 

Israeli media outlets said that the extensive incursions into the West Bank would involve a division’s worth of Israeli occupation forces, including special Mista’arvim forces who act as undercover Palestinians. 

Reports also indicate that Israeli occupation forces have blocked pathways leading to hospitals in the occupied territories. 

In detail, the aggression targets the Jenin refugee camp, the al-Far’a refugee camp, and the Nur Shams refugee camp, in Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarm respectively. 

Reports also indicated that Israeli forces conducted an air landing via a military helicopter in Tubas amid a large presence of ground forces in the area. Thousands of Israeli occupation troops are participating in the aggression which is expected to last for several days. 

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) al-Quds Brigades – Jenin Brigade announced that its fighters are engaging Israeli occupation forces across several axes in the city of Jenin and the refugee camp. 

Its Tulkarm Brigade said that it detonated an IED into an Israeli military bulldozer. As a result of the IED’s detonation, the vehicle was destroyed. 

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s (PFLP) Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades in the West Bank also said that its fighters are confronting occupation forces in the city. 

Israeli occupation forces also launched an incursion into the al-Aroub refugee camp in northern al-Khalil, a city in the southern West Bank. Local reports revealed that an invading force was targeted with an improvised explosive device at the entrance of the camp. 

The al-Quds Brigades – West Bank released a statement amid the ongoing aggression, saying that it has dubbed its defense of the occupied territory “The Horror of the Camps.” The announcement comes in response to the Israeli military command’s announcement of its operation in the West Bank which it dubbed the “Summer of Camps,” in reference to the refugee camps it is invading. 

Palestinian Resistance factions promise, call for escalation

On Monday, an Israeli warplane struck a building in the Nur Shams refugee camp where at least five Palestinians were martyred. Airstrikes in the West Bank are rare and the incident marked an unprecedented escalation, which Palestinian Resistance factions were quick to condemn and promise action against. 

“The escalation of crimes by the Israeli entity and its settlers in the occupied West Bank over the past few hours is a decision for an undeclared open war against our Palestinian people,” the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said in a statement following the airstrike and settler attacks on Wadi Rahhal. 

The movement said that Monday’s events show that the Israeli regime has shifted its war machine from the Gaza Strip to the occupied West Bank. 

Early on Wednesday, the PIJ released another statement to address the wide-scale aggression on the West Bank. 

It explained that the “criminal aggression” on all the cities of the occupied West Bank amounts to an “unproclaimed open-ended war.”

The movement added that the Israeli regime is attempting to transfer the weight of the ongoing war on Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank in order to enforce a new status quo in the occupied territory. 

The al-Mujahideen movement also released a statement where it held the United States administration responsible for the ongoing aggression on the West Bank due to its continuous support of the Israeli regime.