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Israel yesterday pressed a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank, leaving at least 16 Palestinians dead in two days despite UN concerns it was “fuelling an already explosive situation”.
The operation underway across the northern West Bank since early Wednesday has killed 16 Palestinians, the Israeli military said. The Palestinian health ministry gave the same figure.
The raids on several towns and refugee camps were launched as violence raged on in the war-battered Gaza Strip, the besieged Palestinian territory separated from the West Bank by Israel.
In the West Bank, columns of Israeli armoured vehicles backed by troops and aircraft were sent in before soldiers encircled refugee camps in Tubas and Tulkarem, as well as Jenin.
The army said it killed seven militants yesterday, including five militants in the Tulkarem refugee camp.
A military statement said one of the five was Mohamed Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, who Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said was its commander in the nearby Nur Shams refugee camp.
Two other fighters were killed in Jenin.
The UN humanitarian office OCHA said “Israeli forces have repurposed homes as military positions” and were “effectively besieging” several medical facilities.
The United Nations on Wednesday said at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war erupted on October 7.
In Gaza, the civil defence agency said Israeli shelling killed five displaced Palestinians in a tent east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city.
The war has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4mn people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 40,602 people have been killed in the war, now in its 11th month.
The toll includes 68 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to ministry figures.
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