Israeli tanks to enter Jenin: Army
A tank division will operate in the northern occupied West Bank governorate, according to a military statement, as intense confrontations continue between troops and Palestinian fighters there.
Separately, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority said tanks are on their way to enter Jenin, sharing on X a purported photograph of the tanks en route.
It is the first time tanks will be used in the West Bank since Israel’s so-called “Operation Defensive Shield” in 2002.
Israeli soldiers arrest Palestinians in West Bank amid settler attacks
As the Israeli military prepares to significantly escalate its attacks on Jenin using a tank division, army and settler attacks are ongoing across the occupied West Bank.
Here are some of the latest updates from this morning by the official Palestinian Wafa news agency:
- At least eight people were arrested during Israeli raids across the Nablus governorate since dawn.
- Two Palestinians were arrested during an incursion on Beit Hanina, north of occupied East Jerusalem.
- Occupation forces stormed Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem, raiding and ransacking homes.
- Israeli bulldozers destroyed electricity and water lines in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin.
- Soldiers again set up a military checkpoint at the entrance to the town of Issawiya, northeast of East Jerusalem.
- Israeli settlers released their livestock on Palestinian crops in the northern Jordan Valley.
40,000 Palestinians leave northern West Bank camps: Katz
The Israeli defence minister says he has ordered the army to stay in the occupied West Bank refugee camps for the next year.
In a statement quoted by the Israeli media, Katz said: “40,000 Palestinians have so far evacuated from the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps, and are now empty of residents. UNRWA activity in the camps has also been stopped.” He referred to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel has banned.
“We will not return to the reality that was in the past. We will continue to clear refugee camps,” the minister said.
The Israeli army has been carrying out a large operation in the northern West Bank. It announced that Israeli tanks will be used in the Jenin operation – for the first time in the West Bank since 2002.
