Israel launched a lethal strike on the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank early Monday, attacking what it called the “operational command center” of Jenin Brigade militants, marking the latest confrontation in a city that hosts a refugee camp that is a center for armed Palestinian resistance.
An “extensive counterterrorism effort”targeted a site that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said was used for meetings and storing weapons. An aerial photo provided by the IDF indicated that the strike occurred in the congested Jenin Camp, in the vicinity of a medical center and school. The IDF also released a video that suggested Israeli security forces were on the ground in Jenin.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that three people were killed in the strike and 25 injured, with seven of them suffering serious wounds. Israel did not immediately provide details of casualties.
Gunfire, drones explosions were heard in Jenin, Reuters reported, adding that Jenin Brigade militants said they were engaging with Israeli forces.
“Most of the terror attacks against Israelis originated from Jenin,” the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, wrote on Twitter after the strike, adding that the camp had become an Iranian stronghold in the past two years.
Islamic Jihad, a Tehran-backed militant group that Western nations regard as a terrorist organization, said in a statement that it would not be deterred by the strikes. “Jenin will not surrender,” said the organization, which has a following in the city.
The refugee camp in the northern West Bank was set up in the 1950s and has been the target of frequent deadly raids by the IDF, which says it is responding to attacks on civilians inside Israel that
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