Israeli forces withdraw from Jenin, step up raids in other West Bank areas

Palestinians start clearing wreckage in Jenin after the Israeli military’s 10-day assault leaves trail of destruction.

The Israeli military has withdrawn from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp after a military offensive that killed many and destroyed critical infrastructure.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa confirmed on Friday that Israeli forces had pulled out of the city following a 10-day siege, but residents feared soldiers would return after temporarily moving to surrounding military checkpoints.

At least 21 Palestinians, including children and the elderly, have been killed in Jenin over the last few days, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement on Friday, and at least 130 more were injured.

The Israeli military said on Friday that its forces had been “conducting counterterrorism activity in the area of Jenin”, without confirming the withdrawal.

It said in a statement that it killed 14 “terrorists” and arrested more than 30 “suspects” in Jenin during the siege, and claimed to have destroyed about 30 explosives, as well as an underground weapons stockpile located under a mosque and a laboratory for the production of explosives.

The Israeli military launched the offensive in the north of the West Bank on August 28 targeting Jenin and Tulkarem among other areas in its largest assault on the occupied territory since the second Intifada in the early 2000s.

“Palestinians in Jenin are finally able to come out of their homes and see and assess the level of damage, while those who had to leave [the city] are finally coming back,” said journalist Leila Warah, reporting from Ramallah.

She noted that the Israeli military was still present in other areas of the West Bank, with attacks in the Nablus and Balata refugee camps and raids in areas of Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah.

Jenin residents used the lull in violence to rummage through the rubble of destroyed buildings and take stock of the damage.

Wafa reported that military checkpoints surrounding Jenin remained active, heightening fears of future incursions.

In advance of the reported withdrawal, five Palestinians were “severely beaten” on Thursday night by Israeli forces at the al-Jalama military checkpoint north of Jenin, according to Wafa.

Aziz Taleb, a 48-year-old father of seven, found out his family home of 20 years in Jenin had been raided. “Thank God [the children] left the day before. They went to stay with our neighbours,” Taleb told the AFP news agency as he surveyed the damage.

Imra Itisadeh, a 60-year-old Jenin resident, said: “At first, we didn’t want to leave. Later, [the Israeli army] pressured us, and we had to leave our homes. I left with my husband [on foot].”

‘Brutal destruction’

In a statement on Facebook, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Israel of transferring to the West Bank its brutal destruction and devastation the Gaza Strip has been witnessing for 11 months.

It said the raids conducted in Jenin as well as Tulkarem were “a clear targeting of Palestinian civilians and the foundations of their national and human existence on their homeland”.

In their raid in Nablus, Israeli forces arrested two university students from their homes.

A 30-year-old Palestinian man was also injured by shrapnel from bullets fired by Israeli forces following a raid on the Balata refugee camp, located east of Nablus.

Israeli soldiers also stormed the town of Idhna, west of Hebron, where they raided a house.

The siege on Hebron has been ongoing for the fifth consecutive day, with soldiers closing all entrances leading to the governorate after carrying out three operations in less than 48 hours.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies