DM Monitoring
Jenin, West Bank: At least seven people sustained injuries when a car ploughed into pedestrians near a shopping centre in Tel Aviv — an Israeli city — before getting out of his vehicle to “stab civilians with a sharp object,” officials said on Tuesday
The incident occurred a day after at least 10 Palestinians were martyred by the Israeli forces during an operation in Jenin city of the occupied West Bank. The occupied forces’ operation in the city has entered its second day today.
According to the Israeli police, the suspect was “neutralised” at the scene by a civilian. Palestinian group Hamas, however, praised the “heroic” attack as “an initial response to crimes against our people in the Jenin camp” where Israeli forces had killed 10 people in a “counterterrorism” operation on Monday. The driver in Tel Aviv was thought to have intentionally hit several pedestrians on a shopping street, police said.
The suspect, a West Bank resident, was shot dead by an armed civilian passerby, police chief Yaakov Shabtai said.
The attack came as the army pushed on with its operation in Jenin, in the northern West Bank that had left 10 Palestinians dead, more than 100 in custody, and thousands displaced from their homes. The Jenin raid, launched early Monday under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government, employed hundreds of troops as well as drone strikes and army bulldozers that ripped up streets and crushed cars.
“In the last five years, this is the worst raid,” said Qasem Benighader, a nurse at a local hospital morgue.
Netanyahu said Israeli forces were “destroying command centres and seizing considerable weaponry” in the crowded Jenin camp. The Palestinian foreign ministry labelled the escalation “open war against the people of Jenin”.
On Tuesday, Jenin’s shops were shuttered amid a general strike and the near-empty streets were littered with debris and burned roadblocks. Israeli forces had “apprehended 120 Palestinian suspects”, the army said. The army said it does not intend to stay in the camp but was ready for prolonged fighting.
The northern West Bank has seen a recent spate of attacks on Israelis as well as Jewish settler violence targeting Palestinians.
The Israel-Palestinian conflict has worsened since early last year, and escalated further under the Netanyahu coalition government that includes extreme-right allies.
Around 3,000 people had fled their homes in the refugee camp, said deputy governor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Roub, adding they would be housed in schools and other shelters. The United Nations said the military operation disrupted water and electricity to “large areas” of the refugee camp, a crowded urban area home to some 18,000 people.
Imad Jabarin, one of those leaving the rubble-strewn camp, said “all aspects of life have been destroyed, there is no electricity and no communications … we are cut off from the world to some extent”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned” about the violence and urged respect for international humanitarian law, a spokesman said in a statement.
In the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, protesters burned tyres near the border fence with Israel. Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967. Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is now home to around 490,000 Israelis in settlements considered illegal under international law.
The Palestinians, who seek their own independent state, want Israel to withdraw from all land it seized in 1967 and to dismantle all Jewish settlements.
Netanyahu, however, has pledged to “strengthen settlements” and expressed no interest in reviving peace talks, which have been moribund since 2014.
At least 188 Palestinians, 25 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian have been killed this year, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources from both sides.
