Clashes between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip continue a day after an Israeli army raid on the West Bank that killed eleven people on the Palestinian side. Before dawn on Thursday, several rockets – eight according to Palestinian witnesses, six according to the Israeli army – were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel.
Eleven Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, were killed on Wednesday and more than 80 were injured by gunshots in the military incursion into Nablus, the deadliest operation by the Israeli army in the West Bank since 2005. In one recurring scenario, this violence was followed at night by rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, and then by Israeli airstrikes at dawn against the area, which has been under the control of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas since 2007.
“The most explosive situation in recent years”
No casualties were recorded immediately after this new transfer of weapons. Prior to this, the UN Secretary General was alarmed that the situation “in the occupied Palestinian territory (is) the most explosive in recent years.” “The cycle of violence in the occupied Palestinian territories continues to accelerate and the peace process remains at an impasse,” the UN Secretary-General said on Twitter. “The contours of the solution are set out in UN resolutions and international law. What is needed is the political will to make the difficult choice for peace,” says António Guterres.
The European Union calls on “all parties to (work) towards a return to calm and a reduction in tensions”, while Paris calls on “all participants to refrain from any action that could fuel (the) spiral” of violence, and the United States said it was “extremely concerned” about the level of violence in the West Bank.
“Restore Calm”
Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 60 Palestinians (including members of the armed forces and civilians, including minors) and nine civilians (including three minors), as well as an Israeli policeman, as well as a Ukrainian. to the AFP count compiled from official Israeli and Palestinian sources.
“Our immediate priority should be to prevent further escalation, reduce tensions and restore calm,” António Guterres said. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for Thursday morning’s shooting, calling on “resistance forces” to respond “without hesitation” to a “major crime” it said was committed by the Israeli army in Nablus. The Israeli army says it has intercepted five missiles with its air defense system. It then carried out airstrikes against several targets in the Gaza Strip. The strikes targeted an “arms factory” and a “military camp” owned by Hamas, the army said in a statement.
On Wednesday afternoon in Nablus, a compact crowd, including armed men, attended the funeral of nine people killed in the Israeli military operation. The tenth death was buried in the nearby Balata Palestinian refugee camp.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the eleventh victim, aged 66, died in the evening as a result of tear gas poisoning. The Israeli army said it carried out an “anti-terrorist operation” in the Palestinian Autonomous Region, during which “three suspects who were wanted and involved in armed attacks (in the West Bank) and were planning attacks in the near future were neutralized.”
“barbaric act”
During the operation, which lasted almost four hours, the soldiers were shot with stones and explosive devices, the army said, adding that none of them were injured. At least 82 people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, some of them in serious condition, the Palestinian ministry said.
Islamic Jihad reports that one of the local commanders of its military wing was among the dead. According to the armed group Areen al-Oussoud (“Lions Den”), based in Nablus, among the 10 dead there are six militants from different Palestinian groups.
Local resident Mustafa Shahin heard explosions and shots in the morning. “A large number of soldiers stormed” downtown Nablus, he says. Israeli forces have been intensifying what they call “anti-terrorist” operations to search for “suspects” in the northern West Bank, especially in Nablus and Jenin, strongholds of Palestinian armed groups, for almost a year now.
On Twitter, Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh condemned the “deliberate and barbaric criminal act” and called on the international community to “intervene immediately.”
Source: Le Parisien
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