At least 19 Palestinians have been killed since Wednesday by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling on the social network X for an “immediate end” to this operation, condemning “strongly the loss of human life, including minors”.
In Washington, US Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated her support for Israel’s right “to defend itself”, and answered “no” to the question of whether, if elected president in the November election, she would suspend US arms deliveries to Israel, while the war in the besieged Gaza Strip, separated from the West Bank occupied by Israel, has left more than 40,600 dead in nearly 11 months.
As part of an operation it called “anti-terrorist”, the Israeli army sent columns of armoured vehicles on Wednesday to Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas and their refugee camps, in the north of the West Bank, where armed groups are particularly active against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned of the continuation of “military operations near hospitals” and the “serious damage” inflicted on infrastructure, cutting off electricity and telecommunications in places.
The army said it killed 19 fighters on Wednesday and Thursday. The Palestinian Ministry of Health also recorded 19 deaths, including two teenagers aged 13 and 17, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
“Second Gaza”
On Friday, Israeli forces were operating only in Jenin, after withdrawing from Tubas and Tulkarem in the past two days, residents told AFP.
Witnesses reported an Israeli strike on a car in Zababdeh, southeast of Jenin. An AFP journalist on the scene saw human remains being removed from the car by paramedics.
The Israeli army said a plane had struck a “terrorist cell” in the Jenin region and killed three “Hamas terrorists.”
In Jenin, an AFP photographer reported that the road to the hospital remains blocked by an armored jeep from the Israeli army. Only ambulances can access it under the control of the army. Everything is closed, there are no cars or pedestrians in the streets.
In the Nour Shams camp in Tulkarem, residents observed the damage on Friday after the Israeli withdrawal.
“There is no difference between us and Gaza, we are the second Gaza,” said Nayef Alajma.
Israeli incursions into Palestinian autonomous areas are a daily occurrence in the occupied West Bank, but they are rarely on this scale.
“What happened to our humanity?”
Since the start of the war in Gaza, violence in the West Bank has soared.
The UN on Wednesday put the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army or settlers since October 7 at least 637. At least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, died in Palestinian attacks or army operations, according to official Israeli data.
In the Gaza Strip, Gazan aid workers reported new Israeli strikes on Friday and recorded at least three deaths in an air raid on the east of Khan Younis (south), and two others, including a child, in a strike on the Jabaliya refugee camp (north).
The army said it had struck a projectile launcher from which shots had been fired towards Israeli territory. It also claimed to have killed “dozens” of fighters in the south and center of the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours.
The war was triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 103 are still being held in Gaza, including 33 declared dead by the army.
The Israeli reprisals in Gaza have left at least 40,602 dead, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry, and caused a humanitarian and health disaster in the besieged territory.
Most of the Palestinian territory’s 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced in nearly 11 months of war.
The only glimmer of hope: a World Health Organization (WHO) official announced Thursday that Israel had agreed to “humanitarian pauses” of three days each, at a rate of several hours per day, to begin vaccinating children against polio on Sunday, after the announcement of a first confirmed case.
Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood called on Israel to “ensure periods of calm and refrain from military operations” during these periods, and to “avoid further evacuation orders.”
Evacuation orders – 16 since the beginning of August – that the acting head of the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), Joyce Msuya, denounced before the UN Security Council, forcing the population to move constantly, living “in uncertainty, not knowing when the next order will come.”
“Civilians are hungry. They are thirsty. They are sick. They are homeless. They have been pushed beyond the limits of their resilience, beyond what any human being should endure,” she said.
“What we have witnessed over the past 11 months… calls into question the world’s commitment to international law created to prevent these tragedies,” she said.
“It forces us to ask: What has happened to our basic humanity?”
This article is originally published on lapresse.ca
