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04-07-2023
JERUSALEM/ WEST BANK: Israeli forces hit Jenin with air strikes and ground raids carried out by hundreds of soldiers, killing at least eight Palestinians.
A ninth Palestinian is shot dead by Israeli soldiers near Ramallah.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society urgently calls for “safe passage to evacuate the wounded and injured”.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen signals Israel is not intending to expand its operation in Jenin to the rest of the occupied West Bank.
In two drone strikes in the West Bank’s Jenin area as part of a “counterterrorism effort” that the Palestinian health ministry said killed four residents and injured 27 others.
The operation was conducted two weeks after an Israeli army raid in the Jenin refugee camp left seven people dead.
The Israeli army said its forces had struck a “joint operations center” that served as a command post for the “Jenin Brigade,” a local militant group. The West Bank is controlled partially in the West Bank, including the Jenin area by the Palestinian Authority.
Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who took power in December, the violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has worsened. Netanyahu’s coalition includes his Likud party, extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies.
The United Nations (UN) expressed concern over the escalating violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, calling for calm and restraint from all parties. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply saddened” by the 
loss of life and injuries in the recent violence and called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to “take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation.”
The recent violence has raised concerns that the situation could spiral out of control and lead to another full-scale conflict. The international community has called for an end to the violence and for both sides to return to the negotiating table to find a peaceful resolution to the longstanding conflict.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been ongoing since the Six-Day War of 1967, with Israel occupying the West Bank, home to around 490,000 Israelis living in settlements considered illegal under international law. The Palestinians, who desire their own independent state, demand Israel withdraw from all land occupied in the Six-Day War and dismantle all Jewish settlements.
However, Netanyahu has pledged to “strengthen settlements” and has shown no interest in reviving peace talks, which have been inactive since 2014.
In another incident, a Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli fire near the West Bank city of Ramallah, and the militant group Islamic Jihad declared that “all options are open to strike the enemy (Israel) in response to its aggression in Jenin.” (Int’l News Desk)
