Sept. 6 (UPI) — Israeli Defense Forces pulled out of the West Bank city of Jenin and the Palestinian refugee camp there early Wednesday following a 9-day “anti-terror” operation, one of the largest in the past two decades, according to media reports.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said at least 36 Palestinians were killed and several seriously injured in what it called a military assault and while armed groups claimed most of the dead, children and elderly people were among those killed.
The BBC reported that at least eight of those killed were civilians, including a girl aged 16, in the operation involving hundreds of Israeli soldiers and security forces personnel with civilians locked down and all utilities cut amid air strikes and ground battles.
Destruction to homes and infrastructure from the operation, which also targeted the city of Tubas and the al-Faraa refugee camp, was widespread across Jenin in the northern part of the occupied West Bank with residents fearful the Israeli military could return as they have done after previous operations, said the Palestinian-run WAFA News Agency.
Fear of further incursions were being exacerbated by the continued presence of Israeli military checkpoints around Jenin, the report said.
In an operational summary of the”counterterrorism” operation posted on X, the IDF said it had “eliminated 14 terrorists” including Hamas leader Wassem Hazem, captured more than 30 suspects and defused 30 explosive devices planted beneath or beside roads.
“Additionally, numerous terrorist infrastructure sites have been dismantled, including an underground weapons storage facility located beneath a mosque, and a lab used to manufacture explosives,” The IDF said.
“The terrorist Wassem Hazem, head of the Hamas terrorist organization in Jenin, was also eliminated. Hazem directed shooting and explosive attacks in the area of Jenin and was responsible for advancing terror attacks in Judea and Samaria.”
However, the IDF has not said the operation has concluded with its Hebrew language account ending the summary by saying its forces would “continue the operation until its objectives are achieved.”
Separately, Palestinian health officials said three Palestinians had also been killed at the other end of the West Bank in Hebron.
One of those killed had shot dead three Israeli police officers near Tarqumiyah on Sunday, the IDF said.
At the launch of the Jenin operation on Aug. 28, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the operation aimed to “thwart Islamic-Iranian terrorist infrastructure.”
Accusing Iran of working to establish a “terrorist front” in the West Bank, he said Israel needed to wage war in the occupied regions west of the River Jordan just as it had in Gaza.
At least 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according the Palestinian health ministry figures, amid a surge in military actions by the Israeli military following the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel and the war in Gaza.
Israel insists the operations are necessary to prevent violence against Israelis in the West Bank and in Israel, which it says is on the rise.