At least 20 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Nuseirat, central Gaza, among at least 34 killed across the Strip today, medical sources tell our team on the ground.
The siege of Jenin city by Israeli forces leaves Palestinian residents without food, water, electricity or internet access, as the most intense military raid on the occupied West Bank in decades continues.
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, says 20 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Israeli incursion on Wednesday, including a person with disabilities and several children.
A polio vaccination campaign in Gaza is set to begin on Sunday as aid groups express concerns that ongoing Israeli attacks limit their ability to deliver food and healthcare.
At least 40,691 people have been killed and 94,060 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7.
Israel’s military is conducting raids in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, blocking access to aid for Palestinians in the besieged refugee camp on the fourth day of its assault.
Dozens of Israeli soldiers were stationed on the outskirts of the Jenin refugee camp, with Israeli military jeeps and armoured personnel carriers moving into the area.
Israeli forces blew up homes in the Jabriyat neighbourhood of the camp as they extended their largest military assault on Palestinian territory in more than 20 years.
Reporting from Jenin, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said, “Jenin is a ghost town. All of the shops are closed. Nobody is leaving their homes.”
Paramedics were struggling to contact people in the camp with telecommunications blocked.
“Palestinian residents continue to plea to have access to food, water and paramedics,” said Odeh. “This is day four, and the residents of the refugee camp have pretty much no access to any outside help.”
Several gun battles between Palestinian fighters and Israeli soldiers have been reported in Jenin, Odeh reported, adding that videos on social media show extensive damage in the area.
The armed wing of Hamas said its members have “engaged in armed clashes” with Israeli forces in the village of Kafr Dan, which is located to the west of the city.
Israeli troops, along with armoured vehicles, drones and bulldozers, on Wednesday launched simultaneous raids in Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said an “elderly man” was killed in Jenin, without specifying his age, bringing the total death toll from the military raids to 20.
The Israeli army maintains its goal is to target armed groups in the West Bank and to prevent future attacks. It claims to have killed 20 Palestinian fighters and arrested 17. Hamas said at least 10 of those killed were its fighters.
Palestinian residents say that the trail of destruction left behind by the military incursion – which has destroyed infrastructure, roads, water and electricity facilities – suggests that the army’s goal is to make the territory inhabitable and push Palestinians out of their homes.
“Israel’s plans involve annexing Palestinian land, ultimately over time getting rid of the Palestinian population and ethnically cleansing the West Bank and Gaza,” Mohamad Elmasry, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera.
Israel has been emboldened by the lack of response from the United States for its ongoing war in Gaza, he said. “So if it can get away with it there, why [would Israel] not in the West Bank?”
In the south of the West Bank, tensions ratcheted up after Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinians suspected of attempting to attack Israelis in two separate incidents late on Friday.
The army said in a statement that troops responding to a vehicle catching fire and exploding at a gas station in the southern Gush Etzion junction killed a suspected assailant “who exited the vehicle and attempted to attack” the soldiers.
In a second incident, assailants rammed a car into the gates leading into the illegal settlement of Karmei Tzur and infiltrated the area. One assailant was killed.
Security forces have been dispatched to the area in search of other assailants, the army said.
