Palestinians wounded as Israeli army hunts fugitives in West Bank refugee camp. The Israeli army raided a refugee camp near the Palestinian city of Jericho on Saturday. Surrounding homes it said were being used as shelters for Palestinian attackers. And firing on residents who fired.
The fighting wounded six Palestinians, two. And shook a quiet oasis city that has seen less violence than other West Bank cities. The Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The army said it entered the Aqabat Jabar refugee camp southwest of Jericho in the occupied. West Bank to search for suspects involved in last week’s shooting attacks. On nearby Israeli settlements.
Last Saturday, in the deadliest Israeli military operation in two decades. And two next Palestinian attacks in East Jerusalem that killed seven people in the West Bank. The army said a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a restaurant in a settlement near Jericho. The gunman fled the scene after firing a shot, the army said. No one was injured.
The army said several Palestinians were hiding in their homes.
After the shooting with the help of their families and were planning future attacks.
To force the fugitives to surrender, a military bulldozer clawed. At the wall of one of the houses while an Israeli commander shouted threats over a loudspeaker. Camp residents reported receiving text messages urging families to keep their children inside. And avoid confrontations with Israeli forces.
The suspect and family members ran out of a house and barricaded themselves in, the military said. Security forces leveled much of the house, leaving piles of rubble and twisted metal. Palestinian protesters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at military jeeps. As they roared through the camp’s streets, with some gunmen opening fire. The Israeli military returned fire, wounding six people, none , the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The incursion comes as violence escalates under Israel’s new far-right government. And takes a fighting stance against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Israel captured the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East War. The Palestinians are seeking those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
The Israeli army has carried out almost nightly operations in the occupied West Bank since.
A series of deadly Palestinian attacks inside Israel last spring. Amid escalating operations over the past year and a half. Jericho has remained a sleepy desert city, avoiding violence.
Since shelling nearby settlements last week. The Israeli military has closed access to several roads leading to Jericho. A closure that has put the city under a quasi-siege, disrupted businesses. And led to hours-long blockades at checkpoints. That have even affected Palestinian security forces, footage shows. showed
The Palestinian Authority, in retaliation for a raid on the Jenin refugee camp last week. That killed 10 Palestinians, announced the end of security coordination with Israel.
About 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem last year. The deadliest in the region since 2004, according to figures from the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. About 30 people were killed in Israel by Palestinians in 2022.
The Israeli army says most of the dead Palestinians are militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting the incursion.
