Residents in Jenin are being forced to leave their homes due to fears concerning their safety [Getty/file photo]
A Palestinian official said hundreds of people began leaving their homes in the flashpoint area of Jenin the occupied West Bank on Thursday as Israeli forces pressed a deadly operation there.
The Israeli military this week launched a raid in the Jenin area days into a ceasefire was approved in the Gaza Strip.
“Hundreds of camp residents have begun leaving after the Israeli army, using loudspeakers on drones and military vehicles, ordered them to evacuate the camp,” Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP.
On Thursday evening the military claimed it had not asked residents to evacuate from the area.
“We emphasise that in order to maintain the safety of residents in the area, the IDF [Israeli army] is enabling any resident who chooses to exit from the area to do so via secure and organized routes,” it said in a statement to AFP.
Since it began on Tuesday, the violent operation has killed at least 12 Palestinians and injured 40 more around Jenin, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
“There are dozens of camp residents who have begun to leave,” Jenin resident Salim Saadi said.
“The army is in front of my house. They could enter at any moment.”
Israeli forces have also detained several Palestinians from the Jenin area, with an AFP photographer seeing a row of blindfolded men in white jumpsuits being transported out of the West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the objective of the operation, dubbed “Iron Wall”, was to “eradicate terrorism” in the area, linking the operation to a broader strategy of countering Iran and the “Axis of Resistance”.
Drones
Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said it was the right call to launch the assault on Jenin.
“I believe that once we recognised that the Jenin camp had become a hub for those planning terror attacks or looking for a safe haven after committing terror attacks, it was absolutely the right decision to go in forcefully against it,” he said in a statement.
Palestinians had already begun fleeing the Jenin area on foot on Wednesday, with AFPTV images showing a group of men, women and children making their way down a muddy road, the sound of drones buzzing above them clearly audible.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that it killed two Palestinian men near Jenin during the night.
“After an exchange of fire, they were eliminated by the forces,” it said, adding one soldier was wounded in the gunfight.
Violence has surged throughout the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war erupted on 7 October, 2023, which has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 850 Palestinians in the West Bank since Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza began.
The Jenin raid began days after a truce took effect in Gaza on Sunday, after 15 months of war in the Palestinian enclave.