The Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday that troops had killed five more militants in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including a senior commander of a Hamas-linked group, as witnesses said the IDF operation there continued. Israel launched its largest military operation in the West Bank in years Wednesday night and says a total of 14 militants have been killed since then.
The Hamas-affiliated Islamic Jihad group issued a statement on Thursday confirming the death of its commander in the Tulkarem area of the West Bank. According to the statement, Mohammed Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, died during a “confrontation with the occupation forces” in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem.
The group said his death would increase the “steadfastness, resilience and determination of our people to move forward.” Hamas warned in its own statement that his death and those of others in the West Bank would “inflame the volcano of anger in the West Bank.”
While mourning Jaber, Hamas said 10 of its fighters had been killed in various locations in the West Bank during the Israeli strikes. Palestinian health authorities, who do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, said at least 12 people had been killed, according to Reuters news agency. The United Nations said on wednesday that there were also children among the dead.
Violence in the West Bank has increased since terror against Israel from its long-standing stronghold in the other Palestinian territory, the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage.
The war that Israel immediately launched against Hamas in response to that attack has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled enclave.
Palestinians have told CBS News they fear the attacks are part of an Israeli campaign to extend the destruction seen in Gaza for more than 10 months to the occupied West Bank.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says Since October, more than 630 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, of whom 136 were killed and 41 wounded in Israeli airstrikes.
According to OCHA, only six Palestinians had been killed by Israeli airstrikes in the West Bank in the three years leading up to October, all in 2023.
Since October, at least 15 Israelis, including nine soldiers and five settlers, have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank, while attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank have resulted in the deaths of 10 Israelis, as well as seven Palestinians involved in the attacks. the United Nations said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke out against the Israeli operation on Thursday.
“I strongly condemn the loss of life, including of children, and I call for an immediate end to these operations,” Guterres said in a statement on social media. “Only an end to the occupation and a return to a meaningful political process that will bring about a two-state solution will bring an end to the violence.”
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