Israel ends large-scale West Bank raid that left 13 dead

• Thousands of Palestinian mourners join Jenin funeral procession 
• Camp residents met with widespread destruction

JENIN, Palestinian Territories — Israeli forces on Wednesday declared the end of a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank that killed 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier over the previous two days.

The raid, involving hundreds of forces, drone strikes and armoured bulldozers, targeted the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a centre for multiple armed Palestinian groups.

Thousands of Palestinian mourners joined a Jenin funeral procession for those killed, where fighters fired gunshots into the air and the crowd chanted "With our souls and blood, we will sacrifice for you, martyr!"

Amid the days of violence, a Palestinian attacker in Tel Aviv on Tuesday wounded seven Israelis in a car ramming and stabbing attack before an armed civilian shot him dead.

Overnight, Israel carried out air strikes on targets inside the blockaded Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian coastal enclave, with no deaths reported.

As the army pulled out of Jenin, much of the city’s crowded refugee camp was left charred and in rubble from the incursion which displaced at least 3,000 residents.

“All this bloodshed is considered a sacrifice for the homeland and for our cause. All this destruction can be fixed, God willing,” a resident from Jenin camp told AFP as crowds of people holding Palestinian and militant flags marched through the city for the funerals.

The camp, a small urban area home to about 18,000 people, has long been a stronghold of militant groups including Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Among the dead Palestinians was 16-year-old Abdulrahman Hassan Ahmed Hardan, who was shot in the head by Israeli forces while unarmed on Tuesday, according to the non-government group Defence for Children International.

The army has not yet commented on the group’s claim.

Islamic Jihad praised its fighters on Wednesday for what it labelled a “heroic” victory and vowed that, for Israel, “Jenin and its camp will remain a terror that haunts you”.

‘Open war’ 

Jenin residents inspected the widespread destruction in the camp, where gaping holes were torn into buildings, cars were crushed and the ground was littered with bullet casings and broken glass.

Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labelled Jenin’s refugee camp a “terrorist nest”.

The Palestinians labelled the escalation an act of “open war against the people of Jenin”.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 June War and built many settlements, considered illegal under international law, in the area Palestinians regard as the core of the independent state they are seeking.

Excluding occupied East Jerusalem, the territory is home to about 490,000 Israelis living in settlements — a number that hard-right nationalist groups within Netanyahu’s coalition government are working to increase.

The Palestinians want Israel to withdraw from all land seized in 1967 and to dismantle all Zionist settlements.

Netanyahu, however, has pledged to “strengthen settlements” and expressed no interest in reviving peace talks, which have been moribund since 2014.

The army, after a number of deadly attacks early last year inside Israel, started to launch almost daily raids in the West Bank.

The violence has further escalated since Netanyahu’s government took over late last year, with clashes concentrated in the northern West Bank.

During this week’s raid, the army said it had uncovered militant hideouts, arms depots and bomb-making facilities.

“Our troops operated at dozens of sites where terrorists produced ammunition, explosives and various types of weapons,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.

“Anyone who attempt to harm the children and the citizens of Israel will experience the full force” of the military, he warned.

The army said troops had also “confiscated” a large sum of “terrorist funds” during its operation.

‘Crimes against 

our people’ 

The Jenin clashes sparked renewed international concern, and the United Nations decried the violence in both Tel Aviv and Jenin.

“The killing, maiming and the destruction of property must stop,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, called the Tel Aviv attack “an initial response to crimes against our people in the Jenin camp”.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders condemned Israeli forces for firing tear gas inside Jenin’s Khalil Suleiman hospital.

Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al Kaila accused the army of shooting at Palestinians in the Jenin public hospital courtyard, saying this had marked a moment when “Israel’s aggression reached its climax”.

The army said reports on the incident are “not currently known to security forces” and added that “terrorist organisations have exploited civilian areas as a hideout”.