Israel’s largest military assault in two decades in the occupied West Bank has entered its third day with the army, accompanied by bulldozers, leaving a trail of destruction after firing live ammunition and tear gas.
At least three people were killed early on Friday after Israeli forces attacked a car in the village of Zababdeh, south of Jenin.
Israel’s military said one of its aircraft had “attacked a terrorist squad” there following an “encounter with security forces”. Footage of the strike’s aftermath showed a car engulfed in flames.
The Jenin Battalion of al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said earlier that its fighters engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli soldiers in Jenin.
Among those killed, according to the Israeli army, was Wissam Ayman Hazem, the head of Hamas in Jenin. Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, confirmed his death.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching the scene of the attack, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Israeli forces withdrew on Thursday night from the city of Tulkarem and its two refugee camps after a 48-hour operation that killed four people and inflicted widespread destruction on civilian property and infrastructure.
Reporting from the Nur Shams refugee camp, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said Palestinian Civil Defence teams were trying to fix some of the damage from the Israeli raid, with destroyed roads making any movement complicated.
“If Palestinians fix one water line here, one electricity line there, the Israeli forces might be back very soon to ruin them again,” she said, adding that, “Palestinians say Israel wants to make sure their lives, particularly in the refugee camps, get more complicated, giving them no option but to leave.”
Israeli forces also withdrew from the Far’a refugee camp south of Tubas, where four people were killed and civilian property and infrastructure destroyed.
