Jerusalem (EFE) an israeli soldier.
“The forces that operated in the Jenin camp have left and the Army has returned to its routine activity in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank),” a military spokesman confirmed to EFE.
Palestinian militias in Gaza fire five rockets at Israel, which responds with bombardments in the strip
The Palestinian militias of Gaza launched this morning five rockets towards Israel, all of them intercepted by the anti-missile system; to which the Israeli aviation responded with bombardments to two military installations of the Islamist Hamas movement, which governs the enclave.
“Army fighter jets attacked an underground weapons manufacturing plant used by the Hamas terrorist organization’s chemical department, as well as a Hamas rocket raw materials manufacturing plant in the Gaza Strip,” a spokesman confirmed. military.
Israeli withdrawal from Jenin refugee camp
The attack on Gaza comes just hours after Israeli troops began their withdrawal from the Jenin refugee camp last night, where they launched a large-scale military operation early Monday morning, the largest in the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada, which It has so far resulted in 12 Palestinian deaths and one Israeli soldier.
“This attack significantly impeded the efforts to intensify the arms of the Hamas terrorist organization,” added the Israeli Army, which holds the group responsible for everything that happens in the enclave.
However, no group has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, which set off air raid alarms in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, where a house suffered minor damage from shrapnel emanating from the detonation of an intercepted rocket in mid-air.
The Strip already suffered a five-day war escalation last May between Israel and Islamic Jihad – without direct involvement of Hamas – in which 34 Gazans died in the enclave and two people in Israel, one of them Palestinian.
Regarding the operation in Jenin, which involved troops on the ground and air strikes with drones, the Army confirmed last night that “some of its troops were leaving the camp”, a historic stronghold of the Palestinian militia movement where the Jenin Brigade – which brings together militias of all factions – and “main focus of terrorism” in the West Bank, according to Israel.
Sporadic clashes with militiamen after the withdrawal
However, as Israeli troops began their withdrawal, which is still ongoing, there were sporadic clashes with militants and Army spokesman Daniel Hagari stated that the operation will not be considered over until all its troops have left the Jenin camp. and they remain alert.
As the troops were leaving the camp, an Israeli soldier, a non-commissioned officer in the elite Egoz commando, was shot dead as he was securing the withdrawal.
During the early morning, some residents of the Jenin refugee camp began to return to their homes after some 3,000 were evacuated during the operation to flee the violence that has plagued the camp, especially in the last year.
After starting the withdrawal, the Army confirmed an airstrike against armed Palestinians stationed in a cemetery on the outskirts of the Jenin camp, who “posed a threat to the security forces as they left the refugee camp.”
Highest peak of violence since the Second Intifada
The occupied West Bank is experiencing its highest peak of violence since the Second Intifada (2000-05) and this 2023, 156 Palestinians have already died in the framework of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, most of them militants in armed clashes with Israeli troops and attackers, but also civilians, including 27 minors.
In parallel, the area has seen the proliferation of new Palestinian armed groups, which carry out more and more attacks and have left 26 dead on the Israeli side, most of them settlers, five of them minors, and one soldier.