Mission House and Garden. This is how Israel ended up baptizing an operation that, when it began at dawn on Monday, with its air and ground attack on the Jenin refugee camp, he did not even want to name; but due to its violent forms it already carried the title of a large-scale military operation, not seen in the West Bank since the end of the second intifada.
And it is that it had been almost 20 years, since 2005, that the Israeli army had not deployed more than a thousand soldiers in the area or bombarded with drones, and even less in the north, a stronghold of several Palestinian militias, and less for two days. Prime Minister Beniamín Netanyahu has declared that he will continue for as long as necessary, “until the objectives are achieved.”
At least eight Palestinians had died yesterday (five of them militants) and more than 50 had been wounded (ten seriously) at press time, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which denounced that the figures could be higher, due to because the Israeli troops made it difficult for ambulances to access. “What is happening is a real war,” Khaled Alahmad told the Reuters agency after more than a dozen air strikes and fighting between soldiers and militants. “Every time between five and seven ambulances enter, we return full of wounded,” added this medical driver.
Although there has been much speculation in the last two weeks about a major campaign (settler leaders demanded it, as well as far-right members of the government), the drones flying overhead and the noise of explosions is already a real horror for the 14,000 Palestinian refugees who inhabit the camp. less than half a square kilometer, which has led UN representatives to demand that the protection of civilians be guaranteed.
The Israeli army claims to have detained around 20 suspects, succeeded in destroying several installations, including the headquarters of the Jenin Brigade (one of the armed groups that has emerged in the area and which brings together militants from all factions), and seized weapons and explosives, some inside the Al Ansar Mosque. Images on networks and local reports also showed how the passage of Israeli bulldozers has caused the breakage of streets, while the Jenin municipality indicated that this cut off the water and electricity supply.
According to the words of the international spokesman for the Israeli army, Richard Hecht, the operation thus seeks to “break with the terrorists’ dynamic” of attacking Israeli targets and returning to the field. Despite this, several Israeli officials have stressed that the campaign is not aimed against the Palestinian Authority or occupying the countryside, but to “focus on Jenin” without spreading to other parts of the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967.
However, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has made it clear that Israeli forces “are prepared for any possibility” if rocket fire occurs from Gaza, the West Bank or border countries.
Palestinian militias have given no clear indication of what their reprisals would be, beyond warning of a “broad escalation.” The political leader of the Islamist group Hamas, Ismail Haniya, has indicated that “the blood shed in Jenin will determine the nature of the next phase.” And the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Riad Najleh, has promised a response “to put an end to this massacre.” In the middle, the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, Nabil Abu Rudeinah, came to describe the operation as a “war crime” and “brutal aggression”, a condemnation to which Jordan, Egypt and the Arab League have joined.
On the other hand, the calls to demonstrate multiplied in different areas of the West Bank during the day and, in one of these mobilizations in the city of Al Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah, a 21-year-old young man died from a shot to the head.
Whatever the end of this campaign in Jenin, it will not be the last. “We will finish this operation and we will return in a few days or weeks,” warned Yehuda Fox, the Israeli military chief in the West Bank.
