Tel Aviv, Israel –
Palestinian militants in Gaza fired rockets into southern Israel in the early hours of Thursday morning after 10 Palestinians were killed in a shootout sparked by an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. aircraft attacked targets in the coastal enclave.
Bloodshed extends one of the deadliest periods in years in the West Bank, where dozens of Palestinians have died in Israeli fires since the beginning of the year. 11 people died.
The Israeli military said Palestinian militants had fired six rockets and two anti-aircraft missiles from the Gaza Strip. Air defense systems intercepted five of his rockets, one of which landed in a field, according to the military. The missile did not hit its target. Palestinian militant groups did not immediately claim the attacks.
Israeli aircraft then hit several targets in northern and central Gaza. This includes weapons manufacturing sites and military installations belonging to the Hamas militant group that controls the enclave. There were no reports of rocket attacks or injuries in Israel or Gaza from attacks.
The violence comes in the first weeks of Israel’s new far-right government, which has promised to take a hard line against the Palestinians, as security forces step up arrests of wanted militants in the West Bank. says the raids, which began in the wake of a series of deadly Palestinian attacks last spring, are intended to dismantle militant networks and deter future attacks.
But the operation shows little sign of delaying violent Wednesday, resulting in one of the bloodiest battles in nearly a year in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, raising the prospect of further bloodshed.
“We have a clear policy: attack terrorism with force and put down roots in our land,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a ministerial meeting. “Whoever harms the citizens of Israel, we will liquidate them.”
Israeli police stepped up security in classified areas on Thursday, but Hamas said its patience had “run out”.Another militant group, Islamic Jihad, has vowed revenge.
A day after an attack on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank that killed 10 Palestinians in January, Palestinians shot and killed seven outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem.
On Thursday, police said a security guard shot a woman at the entrance to a West Bank settlement, causing minor injuries.
Palestinian men aged 72 and 61 and a 16-year-old boy were among the 10 people killed in a raid in Nablus on Wednesday, health officials said. Dozens of others were injured. Various Palestinian militant groups claimed six of the dead as members. It was not immediately announced whether the others belonged to armed groups. Officials also said a 66-year-old man died from inhaling tear gas.
The attacks led to strikes throughout the West Bank, and schools, universities and shops were all closed in protest. Schools and universities in Gaza and most shops in East Jerusalem were also closed.
Israel occupied the West Bank along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians want those territories for the independent state they wanted.
Israeli forces said they had entered Nablus, a West Bank commercial hub and known militant stronghold, and arrested three militants suspected of previous shootings. The main suspect was wanted in the murder of an Israeli soldier last fall.
Wednesday’s four-hour operation left extensive damage to the centuries-old Nablus market. In the Old Town, shops were riddled with bullets, parked cars were crushed, and blood stained the cement ruins. Furniture from destroyed homes was scattered in a pile of rubble.
The influx of casualties overwhelmed the city’s Nadja hospital, said Ahmad Aswad, chief nurse in the cardiology department.
In one moving scene, a doctor pronounces a man dead, only to discover that the dead patient is his father. Elsewhere, amateur video showed that two apparently unarmed men were shot while running in the street. said it was investigating.
As bodies on stretchers were paraded through the crowd, thousands of people packed the streets, voicing their support for the extremists. Masked men fired into the air.
The fighting came at a delicate time, less than two months after Netanyahu’s new hardline government took office. Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing a wave of protests from Israelis against plans to overhaul Israel’s judicial system, in addition to escalating violence.
The government is dominated by ultranationalists and calls for tougher action against Palestinian extremists, including accelerating the construction of settlements on land the Palestinians want for their future state, including the occupied Jordan River. He vowed to establish Israeli rule in the West Bank. Israeli media cited a top security official who expressed concern that tighter boundaries could lead to even more violence as Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims, approaches.
About 60 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year, according to an Associated Press tally.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in these areas last year, the deadliest year since 2004, according to figures from the Israeli rights group Betzelem. About 30 Israelis were killed in the Palestinian attack.
Israel says most of those killed were militants. However, young people who protested the attack and those who were not involved in the confrontation were also killed.
