Israel pulls back troops from West Bank following deadly raid

Israeli forces withdrew from the West Bank after a two-day raid into the city of Jenin that included mass air strikes, bulldozers to rip up streets and hundreds of troops as part of an effort to crack down on a base of operations for Palestinian militants.

At least 11 people died in the military raid, the largest in the West Bank in about 20 years, and more than 100 others were injured, according to humanitarian organizations responding to the operation.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the 48-hour counterterrorism military operation targeted militants and sought not to harm civilians.

“When we say we make every effort to protect civilians & only target terrorists —we mean it,” the IDF tweeted.

British humanitarian organization Medical Aid for Palestinians said four children were killed in the raid and 120 people were injured, with 20 in critical condition.

The group also accused Israeli forces of firing tear gas outside a public hospital, “where hundreds of children and elderly people have been seeking shelter and treatment,” and of forcing the evacuation of 3,000 people from a refugee camp.

“Most of the refugee camp residents in Jenin are without drinking water and electricity due to damage to infrastructure,” they wrote.

Jovana Arsenijevic, an operations coordinator in Jenin for Doctors Without Borders, also said Israeli forces “fired tear gas several times inside the Khalil Suleiman hospital.”

“This is unacceptable. The emergency room is not usable right now—it’s completely filled with smoke, as is the rest of the hospital,” Arsenijevic said in a statement. “People who need treatment can’t be treated in the ER, and we have to treat the wounded in the main hall on the floor. Our teams have treated 125 patients since the start of this raid.”

The IDF says Jenin is a “hotbed” for terrorist activity, including the manufacturing and distribution of weapons, and is used to launch attacks on the Israeli people. Many of the militant operations are allegedly near schools and humanitarian centers, according to the IDF.

IDF troops were seen ripping up streets and buildings with bulldozers as part of the operation to clear out the insurgency, targeting production facilities and command centers.

Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the IDF, told CNN that the military had largely achieved its goals in reducing “terror from the West Bank” and “dismantling” terror operations.

“In the measures of force, it was very, very accurate and minimized,” Hagari said in response to a question about concerns of civilian harm, claiming zero “noncombatants” were killed.

The large scale of the raid this week sparked fears of a return to an eruption of violence between Israel and Palestine and drew comparison to the Second Intifada Palestinian uprising in 2000, a major conflict between the two nations that killed thousands of people.

Soaring violence this year has led to the deaths of at least 147 Palestinians and 25 Israelis, according to the United Nations.

Part of the escalation is attributed to Israeli settlers emboldened by a hard-line far-right coalition under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though Palestinian militant groups such as the Islamic Jihad have also been blamed for carrying out deadly rocket attacks.

After the Israeli raid in Jenin, several Arab nations quickly condemned the operation, arguing it would only contribute to the cycle of violence.

On Tuesday, a Palestinian rammed a car into a crowd in Tel Aviv and began stabbing Israeli residents in an attack that injured at least nine. Palestinian militant and governing group Hamas claimed the incident was a response to the Jenin raid.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk said “violence only begets more violence” and called for Israel to respect international law during military operations.

“The killing, maiming and the destruction of property must stop,” Türk said in a statement Tuesday. “Some of the methods and weapons used during the operations by [Israeli forces] in the Jenin Refugee Camp and surrounding areas are more generally associated with the conduct of hostilities in armed conflict, rather than law enforcement.”

“International human rights law sets clear obligations on Israel, as the occupying power, to ensure that all operations are planned and controlled,” he added.