Israel-Palestine conflict: A member of the Hamas group allegedly rammed his car into a bus stop in Israel's Tel Aviv on Tuesday and began stabbing people, injuring at least eight persons, a day after Israeli forces launched a military operation in the occupied West Bank that killed 12 Palestinians.
The attacker was shot dead by a bystander, reported AP. The stabbing incident in Tel Aviv was termed as revenge by Palestinian armed groups for Israel's West Bank operation.
The West Bank operation in the Jenin refugee camp was one of the most intense military offensives by Israeli forces in the last two decades. Israel said that the operation was carried out to destroy and confiscate weapons from the camp, housing many Palestinians. At least 12 Palestinians were killed and several more were injured, as per the Palestinian Health Ministry.
A security official on Tuesday said that Israeli troops have begun to pull out from the camp, however, the duration of withdrawal remained uncertain due to continued clashes, as both sides continued fighting near the camp's hospita;.
Israeli forces had used military bulldozers to tear through the Jenin camp, causing thousands of residents to flee the camps and damaging roads and buildings. The Israeli military said that it had confiscated thousands of weapons, money caches and bomb-making materials. In one case, these weapons were found below a mosque, said the military.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to continue similar operations in the future.
The Israel-Palestine conflict in West Bank
The areas of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip were captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The Palestinians seek those areas in their hope of an independent state.
Over the last year, the conflict between Israel and Palestine has worsened as Netanyahu's government has called for tougher action against what they call Palestinian militants. In 2023, over 140 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, while retaliatory attacks have claimed the lives of 25 Israeli people.
The United Nations Security Council on June 27 urged Israel and the Palestinians on Tuesday to avoid actions that can further inflame tensions in the volatile West Bank.
A statement backed by the United States and Russia followed what UN Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland called “an alarming spike in violence” in the West Bank that led to numerous Palestinian and Israeli casualties. He warned the council that “unless decisive steps are taken now to rein in the violence, there is a significant risk that events could deteriorate further.”
The US, Israel’s closest ally, supported the council statement and US deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the council that the Biden administration shares Wennesland’s alarm. He said the United States was “horrified by the brutal terror attack against Israelis” near the West Bank town of Eli on June 21 that killed four and injured several others and condemned it “in the strongest terms.” He also condemned “the recent extremist settler attacks against Palestinian civilians, which have resulted in a death, injuries and significant damage to their property.”
Under international law, all Israeli settlements in occupied territory are illegal. Wennesland warned that Israel’s “relentless expansion” of settlements is fueling violence “and is impeding access by Palestinians to their land and resources, reshaping the geography of the occupied West Bank and threatening the viability of a future Palestinian state.
About Jenin refugee camp
After the creation of the Israeli state in 1948, the Jenin refugee camp was established in the 1950s for refugees fleeing their homes. According to the Guardian, the area houses thousands of Palestinians, including armed groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah. The poverty-stricken area has been called as a hotbed of armed resistance by the Palestinians and terrorism by Israel.
(with agency inputs)
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