conflicts
major offensive? Israel attacks targets in the West Bank
An Israeli Air Force F-35 fighter jet. According to Israeli media reports, a large-scale offensive was launched with airstrikes on the Palestinian city of Jenin. photo
© Tsafrir Abayov/AP/dpa
The security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories is tense. Now the Israeli media are reporting on a large-scale offensive called “Home and Garden”. The destination is the city of Jenin.
The airstrikes hit, among other things, a command and communications center used as an arms store, a meeting place for terrorists and an observation post, the army and the Israeli domestic intelligence service Shin Bet said in a statement quoted by the Jerusalem Post. According to the report, power outages occurred across Jenin. According to Palestinian sources, shortly after the airstrikes, Israel’s army entered the city with many soldiers fighting with militant Palestinians.
The security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories has been tense for a long time and recently worsened again. After two Palestinians killed four Israelis in the West Bank almost two weeks ago, angry Israeli settlers repeatedly used violence against Palestinians there. In the first targeted airstrike in years in the occupied area, three Palestinians were killed with a military drone after shots were allegedly fired from their vehicle at an Israeli border crossing.
More than two dozen people have died in attacks since the beginning of the year. In the same period, about six times as many Palestinians were shot in confrontations, Israeli military operations or after their own attacks. Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War. The Palestinians claim the areas for their own state.