PALESTINIAN militant fighters paraded in Jenin on Wednesday and angry crowds confronted senior Palestinian Authority officials, accusing them of weakness, after one of the largest Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank in years.
The two-day operation, which the Israeli military said targeted infrastructure and weapons depots of militant factions in the Jenin refugee camp, left a trail of wrecked streets and burned-out cars and sparked fury across the Arab world.
At least 12 Palestinians, most confirmed as militant fighters, were killed and around 100 wounded in an incursion that began with late-night drone strikes, followed by a sweep involving more than 1,000 Israeli troops. One Israeli soldier was killed.
“We stayed inside the house, but then they cut off the electricity then the water,” said Mohammad Mansour, a resident of the camp where armoured bulldozers tore up streets to expose roadside bombs, cutting power cables and water pipes.
“We ended up running out of bread and supplies … I’ve never been through such days.”
At a funeral for 10 of the dead, thousands of mourners, including dozens of gunmen, confronted three senior Palestinian Authority leaders, chanting “Get out! Get out!” They forced them to leave under protection of guards who used tear gas to push back the crowds.
The Authority, which exercises nominal governance over parts of the West Bank, protested against the Israeli operation, which it called a war crime, but was unable to do anything to halt it.
Residents Defiant
Following the withdrawal of the Israeli force on Tuesday evening, leaders of Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad and other armed factions claimed victory, and the mood among residents returning home to the camp appeared defiant.
“They did not get what they wanted, thank God. The youths are fine, the families are fine, and the camp is fine,” Mutasem Estatia, a father of six, said after what he described as two nights being kept away, one of them in Israeli detention.
“There are 12 martyrs and we are proud of them, but we expected more damage.”
Israeli forces detained 150 suspected militants, seized large caches of money, guns and roadside mines – including an arsenal under a mosque – and destroyed a command centre, the army said. It said all the Palestinians killed were armed fighters. Islamic Jihad claimed eight as members, with Hamas claiming another.
As the troops withdrew overnight, Israel reported a volley of rockets from the Gaza Strip, another Palestinian territory, which is run by Hamas. The rockets were shot down and Israel’s air force struck targets in Gaza, causing no casualties.
