JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (Washington Insider Magazine)– The latest in a string of violent Israeli incursions in the occupied territory resulted in at least 4 Palestinian deaths and 44 injuries on Wednesday during an Israeli army raid in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli authorities said they shot 2 Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp to death after sending them there to be detained for their alleged involvement in recent gun assaults. Israeli forces killed the 2 Palestinians after a battle broke out when soldiers encircled a residence in the camp and an explosive device exploded, according to the military.
Armed battles erupted in the camp when forces arrived, and militants started throwing rocks and firing at them. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, two more Palestinians were murdered in the incident, which also left at least 44 people injured.
Ahmed Alawneh, a 24-year-old Palestinian intelligence officer, was one of the individuals killed in the violence, according to the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In response to what it called a “dangerous escalation,” the party called for demonstrations and a mass protest in the West Bank.
According to ABC NEWS, the Palestinian Authority is in charge of Jenin in the northern West Bank, like most other Palestinian metropolitan areas, despite the fact that the Israeli military regularly conducts arrest operations there.
Following a spike in Palestinian assaults within Israel last spring, Israel increased its military operations in the West Bank. Rahman Hazam, the brother of a Palestinian assailant who opened fire on a bar in central Tel Aviv in April and was shot dead by police, was one of the Palestinians murdered in the operation on Wednesday, according to Israel.
A home in the packed camp could be seen emitting enormous plumes of smoke in a video taken on Wednesday, which appeared to be the result of the explosion. Young guys hid behind automobiles as heavy gunfire erupted in Jenin’s streets. Israeli bulldozers and armored vehicles roared down the damaged roadways.
The West Bank crackdown has resulted in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians, making this year the worst in the occupied region since 2015. Israeli arrest operations sometimes result in gunfights with camp inhabitants in Jenin, a city long regarded as a stronghold of Palestinian insurgency.
In the most recent round of Israeli assaults, the majority of the Palestinians killed were wanted terrorists or young men who threw rocks or explosives at soldiers entering their communities. However, several civilians have also perished in the fighting, including an Al Jazeera reporter and a lawyer who accidentally drove into a combat zone.
The West Bank was taken by Israel in the 1967 Middle East conflict, and more than 130 settlements have been established there, housing almost 500,000 Jewish people. Three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which the Palestinians seek to serve as the foundation of their future state.
Over ten years ago, the last significant peace negotiations ended in failure.
