Israel carried out its deadliest military operation in occupied West Bank in the second week of July 2023 in nearly two decades, killing at least 12 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others in the occupied city of Jenin. The violent rampage is reminiscent of Israel’s tactics during the second intifada in 2002, when the Israeli Forces had killed 52 people and demolished scores of homes.

According to an Israeli military official, the operation began shortly after midnight of July 3 and ended on July 5. It targeted the refugee camps in Jenin, a neighbourhood home to nearly 14,000 Nakba survivors – and their descendants – who were displaced from their homeland after the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. Reports suggest that military bulldozers began ploughing through narrow streets, damaging buildings to clear the way for the Israeli Forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the troops were focussing on “destroying militant command centres”, claiming that the operation was taking place with “minimum harm to civilians”.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry urged the International Criminal Court to break its silence against the barbaric aggression and start holding the Israeli War Criminals accountable.

Earlier, Israel’s Far-Right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for wider military operations and extensive illegal settlement campaigns in the occupied West Bank. “There needs to be full settlement here. Not just here, but on all the hilltops around us,” stressed Ben-Gvir, a notorious trouble-maker who leads the Far-Right Otzma Yehudit Party in the Coalition Government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu. During a visit to the illegal hilltop outpost of Eviatar, the National Security Minister said: “Because, ultimately, it is the only way we seize this place, strengthen our hold and restore security to the residents.”

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank amid repeated Israeli incursions into Palestinian towns in recent months. On June 19, the Israeli Army carried out a series of air strikes on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, murdering at least 17 Palestinians, including a boy and a girl, and injuring 91 Palestinians and seven Israeli soldiers. A couple of days later, illegal settlers under the protection of the Israeli military carried out a brutal attack on the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya in the central West Bank, murdering one Palestinian, wounding dozens of others and burning 30 houses, 60 cars and dozens of olive trees.

Nearly 180 Palestinians have been murdered by the Israeli Forces so far in 2023. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 25 Israelis were also killed in separate attacks during the same period.

Source: TRT World (Instagram)

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das