Israeli troops on day four of deadly West Bank raid

JENIN, Palestinian Territories: Israel pressed on with a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank for a fourth day on Saturday (Aug 31), as fierce fighting raged in the nearly 11-month Gaza war.
Despite the war in Gaza, a local health official in the Hamas-run territory said polio vaccinations had begun there.
The World Health Organization says Israel has agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” to facilitate a mass vaccination campaign after the first confirmed polio case in Gaza in 25 years.
An international aid worker told AFP that Palestinian authorities had organised a launch event on Saturday and that the campaign was expected to begin in earnest on Sunday.
In the northern West Bank, clashes and explosions persisted in Jenin, and both the health ministry and the Red Crescent reported two Palestinians killed there.
Israel’s military said one of its soldiers, a 20 year old, was killed on Saturday, the first of the operation. Another was “severely injured”, it said without providing details.
Earlier, the military said two Palestinians were killed while preparing to carry out bombings overnight in the south of the West Bank.
Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose Oct 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war, hailed a “heroic operation” at what it called a “sensitive time” during the Israeli operations in the north.
Hamas ally Islamic Jihad, which has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, similarly said it “congratulates” the perpetrators of what it called a “coordinated attack”.
The Israeli army described a vehicle explosion at a petrol station in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc as “an attempted car bombing by a terrorist” who was later killed.
It said one army officer and one reservist were injured.
In the second incident, the head of security in the Israeli settlement of Karmei Zur engaged in a car chase with a “terrorist” who had infiltrated the settlement compound, leading to a collision and “the terrorist being neutralised shortly after”, the statement said.
“During the confrontation, an explosive device in the terrorist’s car detonated,” it added.
At least 22 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since Wednesday, most of them militants, in simultaneous raids in several cities in the northern West Bank.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said at least 14 of the dead were members of their armed wings.
Israel said it had killed “14 terrorists” since Wednesday.
Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated their operations on the city of Jenin and its refugee camps, a long bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel.
Visiting the city Saturday, Israeli military chief of staff Herzi Halevi said his forces “have no intention of letting terrorism (in the West Bank) raise its head” to threaten Israel.
He said that they would “go from city to city, refugee camp to refugee camp” to “protect the citizens of Israel”.
Early Saturday, an AFP photographer in Jenin reported ongoing clashes and said the streets were mostly empty.
“I think it’s the worst day since the start of the raid,” said Jenin Government Hospital director Wisam Bakr.
Water and electricity were cut off from the hospital during the raid, forcing it to rely on a generator and water tank, he told AFP.
Later Saturday, Bashir Matahine from the Jenin municipality told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa that electricity and water “are completely cut off” in Jenin refugee camp and that “80 percent” of the city’s neighbourhoods no longer have water.
He said Israeli bulldozers had dug up 70 percent of the streets, “destroying the water and sewage networks, as well as cables for electricity and telecommunications”.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s Oct 7 attack.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.
Twenty Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Britain, France and Spain have all expressed concerns about Israel’s West Bank operation
In Gaza, Israel pushed forward with its deadly offensive in response to Hamas’s Oct 7 attack.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said its rescuers pulled 29 bodies from the rubble since dawn and transported dozens of wounded to hospitals across the devastated Palestinian territory.
The fighting has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,691 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
The war has drawn in Iran-backed groups from around the region and raised fears of a wider conflict.
On Saturday, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it had launched “explosives-laden drones” at Israel’s Beit Hillel barracks “in response” to Israeli attacks.