Israeli minister says army is using lessons from Gaza in West Bank operations By Reuters
(Revising to make the time reference for section 1 read Wednesday, not ‘Tuesday’)
Written by James Mackenzie, Raneen Sawafta
JERUSALEM/JENIN (Reuters) – Israel’s defense minister said on Wednesday the military was applying lessons learned in Gaza as a major operation in Jenin got under way that the military said was aimed at fighting Iran-backed terrorist groups in the volatile West Bank city.
A military spokesman declined to give details but said the operation was “almost identical” to the one last August, when hundreds of Israeli soldiers backed by drones and helicopters stormed Jenin and other West Bank cities.
It was the third major attack by Israeli forces in less than two years on Jenin, a longtime stronghold of militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, whose forces have said they are fighting Israeli forces.
At least four Palestinians were injured on Tuesday, after 10 were killed the previous day, Palestinian health officials said, while residents reported gunfire and explosions.
Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani said the military’s increased use of roadside bombs and other explosives was a major focus of the operation, including armed bulldozers to demolish roads in the refugee camp near the city.
As the occupation continued, many Palestinians left their homes in the camp, a township filled with Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war for the creation of Israel.
“Thank God, we were at home, we went out and asked an ambulance to take us out,” said a woman who identified herself as Um Mohammad.
Before the attack, which came two weeks after an Israeli attack by suspected gunmen in Jenin, roadblocks and checkpoints had been thrown up in the West Bank in an effort to reduce traffic in the area.
When the attack began, Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces emerged after a weeks-long campaign to regain control of the refugee camp, which is dominated by Palestinian groups opposed to the PA, exercising limited control over parts of the country. in the West Bank.
The program took place two days after the introduction of a cease-fire agreement in Gaza and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, with Israeli soldiers withdrawing from their positions in several detention centers.
READING IN GAZA
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the attack on Jenin showed a change in the military’s security system in the West Bank and was “the first lesson on the way to repeated raids on Gaza”.
“We will not allow the arms of the Iranian regime and radical Sunni Islam to endanger (Israeli) settlers (in the West Bank) and establish a terrorist war in the east of the land of Israel,” he said in a statement.
Israel’s operation in Gaza, following the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 by gunmen led by Hamas, has left much of the coast in ruins after 15 months of bombing. The army said it had refined its urban warfare tactics based on its experience in Gaza, but Shoshani declined to provide details on how these lessons were applied in Jenin.
Israel views Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas and Iran-backed Islamic Jihad as part of an international war waged by an organization that includes Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
Newly elected US President Donald Trump has appointed senior officials closely associated with the terrorist organization, and his return to the White House was welcomed by ministers who were committed to expanding settlements in the West Bank.
About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among the 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Many countries consider Israeli settlements in war-torn territory illegal. Israel disputes this, citing historical ties to the Bible and the world.
