Israeli army besieges homes of fugitives in West Bank raid

AQABAT JABR REFUGEE CAMP, West Financial institution (AP) — The Israeli military raided a refugee camp close to the Palestinian metropolis of Jericho on Saturday, besieging homes it mentioned had been getting used as hideouts for Palestinian attackers and taking pictures at residents who opened fireplace. The combating wounded six Palestinians, two critically, mentioned the Palestinian Well being Ministry, and jolted a typically quiet oasis city that has seen much less violence than different West Financial institution cities.

The military mentioned it entered the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp southwest of Jericho within the occupied West Financial institution to seek for suspects concerned in a taking pictures assault final week at a close-by Israeli settlement.

You are reading: Israeli army besieges homes of fugitives in West Bank raid

Final Saturday, with the West Financial institution on edge after the deadliest Israeli navy raid in 20 years and two subsequent Palestinian assaults in east Jerusalem that killed seven folks, the military mentioned a Palestinian gunman had opened fireplace in a restaurant at a settlement close to Jericho. After firing one bullet, the gunman fled the scene, the military mentioned. Nobody was wounded.

The military mentioned a number of Palestinians had holed up of their houses after the taking pictures with the assistance of household and had been planning future assaults.

To pressure the fugitives to give up, a navy bulldozer clawed on the partitions of one of many houses as an Israeli commander shouted threats over a loudspeaker. Camp residents reported receiving textual content messages urging households to maintain their kids inside and keep away from clashing with Israeli troops.

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The suspects and relations trickled out of one of many houses and turned themselves in, the navy mentioned. Safety forces had leveled a lot of the home, leaving a pile of rubble and twisted metallic. Palestinian protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at navy jeeps as they rumbled down the camp streets, whereas some gunmen opened fireplace. The Israeli navy fired again, wounding six, none critically, the Palestinian Well being Ministry mentioned.

The incursion comes as violence rises in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Financial institution beneath Israel’s new far-right authorities, which has taken a combative stance in opposition to the Palestinians. Israel captured the West Financial institution within the 1967 Mideast conflict, together with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians search these territories for his or her hoped-for impartial state.

The Israeli military has ramped up near-nightly raids within the occupied West Financial institution since a collection of lethal Palestinian assaults inside Israel final spring. During the last 12 months and a half of escalating raids, Jericho has remained a type of sleepy desert city, spared a lot of the violence.

Since final week’s taking pictures on the close by settlement, the Israeli navy has blocked entry to a number of roads into Jericho — a closure that has positioned town beneath a semi-blockade, disrupting enterprise and creating hourslong bottlenecks at checkpoints that affected even Palestinian safety forces, footage confirmed.

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The Palestinian Authority, in retaliation for final week’s raid into the Jenin refugee camp that killed 10 Palestinians, declared a halt to safety coordination with Israel.

Almost 150 Palestinians had been killed final 12 months within the West Financial institution and east Jerusalem, making it the deadliest in these areas since 2004, in response to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Some 30 folks had been killed in Israel by Palestinians in 2022.

The Israeli military says a lot of the Palestinians killed have been militants. However stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and others not concerned in confrontations have additionally been killed.

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