The Israeli military said in a statement on Friday its “troops are continuing with the operation until its objectives are achieved”, without specifying those goals.
The statement claimed that the Israeli troops killed 14 Palestinian fighters in Jenin in the past 10 days, including Wissam Hazem, whom it identified as the commander of Hamas in the city, and arrested more than 30 “suspects.”
It also claimed to have destroyed “over 30 explosive devices planted under roads in the city.”
The Israeli military’s raid on Jenin and its refugee camp killed at least 21 people, including elderly people and children, and cut off water, power and sewage lines.
That statement came while media reports cited eyewitnesses as saying that the Israeli forces withdrew from the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm and their camps in the northern West Bank, leaving a trail of destruction and deaths.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) described the past week as “the deadliest for Palestinian civilians in the West Bank since November last year.”
“As the war rages in Gaza, violence and destruction in the West Bank increase by the hour,” it said in a post on social media platform X on Thursday, adding “This is unacceptable. It must stop now.”
MA/Press TV