Nine Palestinians were killed and sixteen injured, four of them seriously, during an Israeli raid on Thursday (January 26th) in the northern West Bank, according to Palestinian sources. Israeli forces have “deliberately fired tear gas grenades” in the pediatric ward of a hospital in the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp, “causing the asphyxiation of some children”according to a press release from the Minister of Health, Mai Al-Kaila. ” The situation is critical “she warned.
Questioned by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Israeli army did not comment immediately. “Security forces are carrying out an operation in the Jenin refugee camp. Details will be provided later »she replied on Telegram.
It is the deadliest day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the escalation of tensions between the Israeli army and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza in the summer of 2022during which at least forty-nine Palestinians died in a few days.
“The army destroys everything”
According to the Red Cross, the evacuation of the many wounded is difficult, said Minister Mai Al-Kaila, who asked for the organization of a “urgent meeting” with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organization (WHO). Asked by AFP, these organizations did not comment.
“The Israeli army destroys everything and shoots everything that moves”the deputy governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu Al-Roub, told AFP, adding that residents live “in a state of war”. “What is happening in Jenin and its camp is a massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation government”said Nabil Abou Roudeina, spokesman for the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
A tenth Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli forces on Thursday, in Al-Ram near Jerusalem, in unspecified conditions, and several other people were injured in other incidents.
“Since the beginning of the year, we continue to observe high levels of violence and the negative trends that have characterized 2022”regretted in a statement the UN envoy for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, judging “essential to immediately reduce tensions”. The United Nations has not recorded such a high toll in a single Israeli operation in the West Bank since it began counting the victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories in 2005.
Thirty dead since the start of the year
Thursday’s deaths bring to thirty the number of Palestinians, civilians or members of armed groups, killed since the beginning of the year in violence with Israeli forces or civilians. On Wednesday, two young Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed by agents of the Israeli security forces, according to the Palestinian Authority. One was shot dead after trying to stab a soldier and the other during clashes with police, according to Israel.
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Nabil Abou Roudeina, spokesman for the President of the Palestinian Authority, denounced “a massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation government”. The Palestinian Authority announced on Thursday that it would end security coordination with Israel. “In light of the repeated attacks against our people and violations of signed agreements, particularly security agreements, we consider that security coordination with the Israeli occupation government ceases to exist from now on”the office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement.
US visit scheduled for this week
Israel “don’t look for escalation” but get ready “to all scenarios”, said Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, according to a statement from his office. The head of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, must visit Israel and the West Bank on Monday and Tuesday, where he will insist on “the urgent need to take measures to de-escalate tensions”announced the State Department.
In the Jenin camp, which dates from 1953 and is home to more than 23,000 refugees according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa), the walls of some buildings have been blackened by fires, noted an AFP photographer. In May 2022, Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, star of the Al Jazeera channel, y was killed while covering an Israeli raid.
Tsahal, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, carries out almost daily raids across this Palestinian territory, particularly in the north, in the areas of Jenin and Nablus, strongholds of armed Palestinian factions. According to an AFP count, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has killed more than 200 Palestinians and claimed the lives of at least 26 Israelis in 2022.