At least 11 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the northern occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
Five people were reportedly killed in an airstrike in al-Far’a refugee camp, and six in a drone strike and armed clashes in Jenin.
Israeli security forces said they were carrying out “an anti-terrorist operation to thwart terrorism” in Jenin and Tulkarem.
It appears to be a large-scale Israeli operation, with at least four Palestinian cities targeted at the same time: Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus and Tubas.
It appears to be the first time since the second intifada – a major Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2005 – that multiple Palestinian cities have been targeted simultaneously in this way.
Palestinian reports indicate that main roads leading to Jenin have been closed due to armed clashes in the city’s refugee camp.
An Israeli airstrike reportedly targeted a vehicle in a nearby village at dawn.
Israeli forces reportedly entered a hospital in Jenin and blocked two others in Tulkarem.
Israeli military raids in Nablus reportedly focus on two refugee camps.
In Far’a camp near Tubas, medics say ambulances are struggling to reach the wounded after an Israeli drone strike.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “have been operating with full force since yesterday evening in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps to dismantle the Iranian-Islamic terrorist infrastructure established there.”
He accused Iran, which backs the armed groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, of seeking to open what he called a new front against Israel in the West Bank.
“We must confront this threat in the same way that we confront the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and all necessary measures,” he added.
The Israeli military gave few details but said in a statement that the Israeli military, the Shin Bet internal security agency and Israeli Border Police forces were “currently conducting a counter-terrorism operation to thwart terrorism in Jenin and Tulkarem.”
