The Israeli offensive against Palestinian territory has increased in intensity this morning, both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank. At least 55 Gazans have died this morning in several bombings by the Israeli army and another five Palestinians have died in West Bank territory in air strikes, according to authorities.
At least 55 people died in the Gaza Strip overnight from Saturday to Sunday following the announcement of intensified Israeli bombing, the Hamas government announced. The bombings took place “during the night until 6 in the morning and more than 30 houses were destroyed,” said a statement from the government of the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in the small territory.
In the West Bank, for its part, two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in the city of Jenin under which there was an underground complex of militiamen from the Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, according to Israeli military sources. Israeli forces also killed three other Palestinians in clashes elsewhere in the occupied West Bank.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the latest Israeli operations bring to 90 the death toll from gunfire by Israeli troops and settlers in the West Bank since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza broke out on October 7, which has further increased the regional violence.
This morning, Israeli forces once again used an aerial device to attack a mosque in Jenin—a city in the northern West Bank where clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian militias are common—where, according to a military spokesman, “there was an underground terrorist complex.” with a cell of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militiamen.
According to the Army, the group was planning “an imminent terrorist attack” and “was responsible for several attacks” in recent months.
Among them, he attacked in the area of ????the separation wall with the West Bank on October 14 with an explosive device, and used the Al Ansar mosque in Jenin “as a command center to plan attacks and as a base for their execution,” it detailed. fountain.
Israel again resorted to airstrikes on militant posts in the occupied West Bank this year, something that had not been common since 2006. The region is experiencing its highest spike in violence since then, when the Second Intifada ended.
This Thursday, Israel attacked a group of armed Palestinians with a drone in a military operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, which left 13 Palestinians and an Israeli police officer dead.
Last July it also used unmanned aerial devices for its two-day offensive on the refugee camp, and at the end of June it killed three militiamen from the same city using a drone.
On the other hand, in the early hours of today, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in Qabatiya, near Jenin; another died in the city of Nablus and a third died in Tubas, in separate incidents that show how violence is widespread throughout the West Bank.
Israeli forces have arrested almost 600 Palestinians in the last two weeks – most suspected of having links to Hamas – as intense incursions by Israeli forces into Palestinian towns continue, often resulting in clashes with troops and fatalities.
Yesterday, Israeli soldiers also killed two Palestinian minors in clashes in the towns of Huwara and Betunia, while another Palestinian seriously injured by Israeli fire a week ago died yesterday from his injuries, the Ministry of Health detailed.
Beyond the attacks against Palestinian territory, one civilian was killed and another was injured in a new Israeli missile attack against the international airports of Damascus and Aleppo (northwest), an “aggression” that left both out of service, reported this Sunday a Syrian military source.
The new attack, the third so far this month against Syrian civilian airport facilities, took place last morning when “the Israeli enemy simultaneously carried out an aerial aggression with volleys of missiles from the Mediterranean, west of Latakia, and from the occupied Syrian Golan, against the international airports of Damascus and Aleppo,” the source said, according to the official Syrian news agency, SANA.
“The attack caused the death of a civilian worker at the Damascus airport, injuries to another worker and material damage to the landing strips of the two airports, which left them out of service,” he added.
The Syrian Transport Ministry said in a statement that flights have been transferred to the airport in the coastal city of Latakia, in northwestern Syria, given the damage caused to those in Damascus and Aleppo.
Syria regularly blames Israel for attacking the airports in Damascus and Aleppo. The latter was attacked twice this month, the last one on the 14th after armed groups favorable to the Syrian Government launched at least one projectile into Israeli territory.
Israel frequently attacks Syrian territory, most often with missiles from its aircraft and less with artillery from its side of the divide, often targeting Lebanese or Iranian militias allied with Damascus.
