Israeli forces withdraw from Jenin and the camp there

Palestinians survey the damage on the road after an Israeli military operation in Jenin. Reuters

Israeli forces have withdrawn from the city of Jenin and a refugee camp there after a ten-day episode of “violent aggression,” the Palestinian news agency (WAFA) reported on Friday.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement that 21 people were killed in the city and the camp.

A Reuters witness said Israeli forces had left significant damage to infrastructure.

In a statement on Facebook, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused Israel of transferring its brutal destruction and devastation in the Gaza Strip to the occupied West Bank, as shown by the situation in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm and the refugee camps there.

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been involved for more than a week in their deadliest operation in the occupied West Bank since the war between Israel and Hamas began, using what the United Nations calls “lethal war-like tactics.”

Their focus was on the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of Palestinian groups that has grown since the Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip nearly eleven months ago.

Of the 39 Palestinians killed during the Israeli advance in the West Bank, according to local health authorities, 21 died in the fighting in Jenin.

The fighting had a devastating impact on the Palestinian civilian population living in Jenin.

Water and electricity supplies have been cut off, families are confined to their homes, and ambulances that are supposed to take the injured to nearby hospitals are only arriving with great delays.

Residents of Jenin took advantage of the quiet morning on Friday to rummage through the rubble of the destroyed buildings and assess the damage.

Twisted reinforcing steel protruded from the concrete of the collapsed buildings and the still-standing walls were riddled with bullets and shrapnel.

During the operation, Israeli military officials said they targeted militants in Jenin, Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camp in an effort to curb recent attacks on Israeli civilians, which they said have become increasingly sophisticated and deadly.

It was not immediately clear whether they would also withdraw troops from the other two camps.

According to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its count, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive. The ministry reports that more than 94,000 others have been injured since the war began.

Israel is under increasing pressure from the United States and other allies to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sticking to a demand that has emerged as a major sticking point in the talks: continued Israeli control of the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow strip along the Gaza-Egypt border where Israel claims Hamas smuggles weapons into Gaza. Egypt and Hamas deny this.

Hamas accuses Israel of dragging out the negotiations by making new demands, including permanent Israeli control over both the Philadelphia Corridor and a second corridor that runs through the Gaza Strip.

Agencies