Jerusalem, Feb 2 (EFE).- The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that it had killed more than 50 militia members and arrested over a hundred since it began its military operation two weeks ago in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas in the northern occupied West Bank.
“Security forces are continuing the campaign to thwart terrorist activity in the northern region of Samaria,” the Israeli army said in a statement. Samaria is the Israeli name for the northern West Bank.
On Sunday, Palestinian sources reported the deaths of three minors as a result of the IDF’s bombing of some 20 homes in the Jenin refugee camp.
Footage broadcast on Palestinian television showed the moment Israel blasted up to 20 buildings in the al-Damj neighborhood of Jenin camp on Sunday.
Among the dead was a two-year-old girl who was hit by an army bullet as she ate dinner with her family, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
“These escalating crimes in Jenin call for an intensification of the resistance to confront the criminal occupation, which aims to eliminate the Palestinian presence. Our people will not surrender to the Zionist machine of destruction and devastation,” Hamas threatened in a statement on Sunday.
According to local Palestinian media, Israeli forces had brought in large quantities of explosives after forcing residents to evacuate their homes in previous days.
Israel launched its Iron Wall operation against Jenin on Jan. 21, just two days after the Gaza cease-fire began, and expanded it days later to include the northern West Bank towns of Tulkarem and Tubas.
The Jenin refugee camp was established in 1953 in the town of the same name to house Palestinian refugees displaced by advancing Israeli troops. It is a historic stronghold of armed resistance – with a presence of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad – that became the symbol of resistance during the first intifada in 1987 and the Israeli invasion in April 2002.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has warned that the IDF will remain in the camp even after the end of the current offensive. EFE
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