Israeli military targets Jenin for militant infrastructure

3/2/2025 6:02

The Israeli

military blew up buildings in the Jenin refugee camp in the

occupied West Bank on Sunday in an operation that the

Palestinian state news agency said leveled around 20 buildings.



Footage capturing the demolitions showed a series of

simultaneous explosions in the densely populated camp.



Thick clouds of smoke rose above the Palestinian city where

Israeli forces have been conducting a major military operation

for nearly two weeks that the Israeli military says is targeting

Palestinian militant fighters and the seizure of weapons

stockpiles.



The Israeli military said 23 structures had been

"dismantled" in the northern West Bank after explosives

laboratories, weapons and observation posts were uncovered by

its forces.



In a previous statement on Sunday it shared images of

firearms, ammunition, and what appeared to be gas canisters. It

not say where exactly those images were taken.



Jenin Government Hospital Director Wisam Baker told the

Palestinian state news agency that part of the hospital was

damaged in the explosions but that there had been no casualties.



Jenin is home to a crowded refugee camp of descendants of

Palestinians who were driven out, or fled their homes, in the

1948 war when the state of Israel was established. The refugee

camp there has been a centre of militant activity for decades

and the target of repeated raids by Israeli security forces.



Israeli forces, backed by helicopters and armoured

bulldozers, began the assault on the city on Jan. 21, two days

after a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and the militant group

Hamas took effect.



Israel regards the West Bank as one part of a multi-front

war against Iranian-backed groups established around its

borders, from Gaza to Lebanon and including the Houthis in

Yemen, and it turned its attention to the area immediately after

the halt to fighting in Gaza.



The United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees has

said that almost all of the Jenin camp's 20,000 residents have

been displaced over the past two months.



Hamas on Sunday called for an "escalation in the resistance"

against Israel following the demolition of buildings in Jenin.



The Palestinian Authority, a Hamas rival, exercises limited

governance over the West Bank where around 3 million

Palestinians live and over which Israel maintains overall

military control.



Israeli forces have engaged in gun battles with local

militants since the operation began. Defense Minister Israel

Katz on Wednesday said security forces would stay until the

operation is complete, without saying when that would be.



At least 25 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli

military operation began in Jenin, including nine members of

armed groups, a 73-year-old man and a two-year-old girl,

according to Palestinian officials. The Israeli military says it

has killed at least 35 militants and detained over 100 wanted

individuals.



The Palestinian state news agency also said that a

27-year-old man had been killed on Sunday by Israeli forces

raiding a refugee camp near Hebron.