The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have reported the loss of five more soldiers in Gaza. Three of them fell in the intense fighting in southern Gaza, an area marked by fierce clashes.
Additionally, one soldier succumbed to injuries sustained last week, and another member of the elite counter-terrorism Duvdevan Unit, known for undercover operations, was among those who lost their lives.
Despite Israel’s military superiority, its forces face vulnerability to ambushes by militants utilizing underground tunnels in civilian zones.
Israel’s army said that 10 soldiers died in a battle in northern Gaza yesterday, making it the worst day for the military since they started their attack on Hamas.
Nine people were killed, and they were fighting in Shejaiya, which is to the east of Gaza City. Among them were a battalion commander and a colonel.
It is said that they were attacked in a planned way.
One hundred and fifteen soldiers have died.
Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli War Cabinet and a former military leader, said that the war was causing a lot of pain and was hard to deal with.
Most Israelis still think the war is right and needed, but when soldiers die, it affects everyone in the country because most Jewish people, and also some from other religions, serve in the army.
Some Israelis on social media are asking if the increase in fighting on the ground could be because the US is pushing for less air strikes.
Israeli airstrikes hurt fewer Israeli soldiers but have caused many Palestinian civilians to die.
Iran-supported Houthi rebels in Yemen said they will stop any ships from going to Israel until Gaza gets food and medicine. This has raised worries about a bigger fight in the area.
United Nations officials are upset because not enough help is getting to a small part of the area, causing a lack of food and clean water.
A person saw a lot of scary and dangerous things in the middle of Gaza’s southern city Khan Younis. There were loud sounds of bombing and intense fighting.
Israel told people to leave the middle of the city and the military leader wants to increase the campaign.
On Saturday, a hospital leader in Khan Younis said they had too many injured people – and Israel said it was fighting against Hamas in homes.
The UN said that many people in Gaza don’t have enough food to eat. About half the people there are starving, and nine out of ten can’t eat every day.
Video has shown people giving up to Israeli soldiers in the northern part of Gaza. But there are two different videos of the same situation and people are unsure if it’s real or not.
Nine weeks ago, Hamas attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people. They also took 240 hostages, but some of them were released during a short break in the fighting.
Hamas leaders in Gaza say Israel killed over 17,700 people in its revenge attacks, including more than 7,000 children.
A 22-year-old person from Palestine was taken by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in northern Gaza along with many others.
Video confirmed by the media shows a bunch of men with just their underwear on, kneeling on the ground and being watched by Israeli soldiers.
The man said he was made to sit on the street for a long time, with his hands cuffed and unable to see, before being taken away in a car.
An Israeli leader said the soldiers were looking for members of Hamas.
Mark Regev, who helps the Prime Minister of Israel, told the media they are trying to find the people who caused the massacre on October 7.
The prisoners were moved in a truck from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza to a place that is not known. A young man said this, but he wanted to stay anonymous for his safety.
After they got there, they were picked randomly to be asked questions about their connection to Hamas.
The 22-year-old said that the place where he, his father, brother, and five cousins were taken was sandy. They were left almost naked but given a blanket at night.
After he was asked some questions, he says he was brought to a different place and then told to go home. He got home around 1:40 in the morning.
They let us go but kept my dad and oldest cousin. My dad works for UNRWA. “I don’t understand why they took him,” he said.
“We walked without shoes on the road at night, and there were lots of rocks and glass on the ground. ”
A photo of the men being taken away in a truck has been shared on social media and confirmed by the BBC.
Mr Regev said that the Israeli soldiers were gathering people to find out who was responsible for the Hamas attacks in Israel.
They were trying to figure out who the people in the photos of beheading and raping matched with, he said.
Mr Regev said that some people might be UN workers, but he also said that being a UN worker doesn’t always mean they are not part of Hamas.
He said that Hamas runs the workers’ union of UNRWA and that the group has members in many different organizations, which shouldn’t be surprising to anyone.
Another Palestinian man named Mohammed Lubbad, who lives in Belgium, said on Instagram that his brother Ibrahim was taken by the police along with 10 other members of their family.
Mr Lubbad said to the media that he had used video call on WhatsApp to talk to his brother two hours before he was taken away.
“He said that Israeli soldiers had surrounded our house and the whole village of Beit Lahia. ” “Then, I watched the video that was shared on social media of the truck. ” I quickly saw my brother and also recognized some of our neighbors.
Mr Lubbad said that all his family members were let go except for his two cousins, Ahmed Lubbad who is 35 years old and is a teacher and has four kids, and Ayman Lubbad who is a human rights activist and has three kids.
He said his family were “ordinary people with no connection to the military. ”
‘Moved to Israel’
One of the men who was captured, Diaa al-Kahlout, has not been let go, as per a co-worker. He works as a reporter for The New Arab, a news organization in London that covers the Arab world.
Some people who were freed later said that the journalist was moved to Zikim military base in Israel, according to Lamis Andoni of The New Arab.
Diaa al-Kahlout was treated very badly by his employer, Al-Araby al-Jadeed.
“We don’t know what happened to him,” she said on BBC Radio 4’s PM show. The pictures and videos of these guys are really scary. I’m very surprised.
She said that Mr al-Kahlout is very determined and always has a smile on his face, but like many people in Gaza, he feels trapped.
Ms Andoni said she was talking to Israeli soldiers through the UN. She said that the IDF’s idea that the men were only potential suspects and that soldiers needed to look into the matter further was not a good response.
Israeli soldiers are getting ready to fill the tunnels under Gaza with water from the sea. These tunnels are used by the Hamas group.
New photos show IDF soldiers putting in five pumps near Al-Shati refugee camp. The pumps can move a lot of water into the tunnels every hour.
Israel wants to fill the tunnels with water to force Hamas to leave them and stop them from doing bad things.
The IDF released pictures that seem to show many soldiers putting black pipes on Gaza’s beaches that go into the Mediterranean Sea.
American officials said on Monday that Israel has set up big pumps that could flood Hamas’s many tunnels under the Gaza Strip with sea water.
The plan would help Israel to find and destroy tunnels, and to catch and stop any Hamas fighters inside. Officials said this to the Wall Street Journal.
It was not sure if Israel would use the pumps before freeing their hostages from Hamas. Flooding the tunnels could harm people inside and damage underground buildings.
Hamas said they have hidden the hostages in safe places and tunnels.
Israeli media show video of Israeli soldiers filling up pipes and working on pumps underground.
The head of the IDF, Lt. General Aviv Kochavi Rewrite this text in simple words:Gen. Army leader Herzi Halevi seemed to agree that Israel wants to flood Hamas’s tunnels and thinks it’s a good plan.
He said: ‘We are finding many tunnels and other structures beneath the surface in Gaza, which is what we expected. ‘ We want to wreck this infrastructure.
We have different ways to deal with the tunnels. I can’t talk about all the details, but we use explosives to destroy them and other methods to stop Hamas from using the tunnels to hurt our soldiers.
So, we are considering using any method that helps us beat the enemy who uses tunnels. This will take away their advantage of using the tunnels. This is a good idea, but I won’t talk about the details.
Israeli soldiers are moving into more areas of the Gaza Strip and telling people to leave, especially in the middle and south.
One way it is giving out these instructions is by using a map on the internet.
that separates the Gaza Strip into many smaller sections.
People who live in the area are asked to pay attention to what is happening and to do what the IDF tells them through the news and other media.
Today, it posted on social media to tell people in 20 areas in southern Gaza to leave their homes.
The map showed arrows pointing to the south, telling people to go there.
The IDF has told people to leave an area by dropping flyers and making phone calls with warnings. They sometimes use QR codes on the flyers to show a map of safe places.
Many people have criticized its way of doing things.
Sari Bashi from Human Rights Watch said Israel wants people without electricity or internet to scan a barcode to find out where they should go.
She also said Israel is telling people to run away “when there’s nowhere safe to go” and no safe way to get there.
The UN says that most people in Gaza had to leave their homes because of the war. The US told Israel to keep civilians safe, and Israel says it is doing its best to do that.
Jerusalem has increased security after a shooting that killed three people and injured 16 others. This was announced by Israeli police.
Three people are seriously hurt and the others have different types of injuries, including shock. This is what a police representative said.
The police said that two men in their 30s from the Zur Baher neighborhood in East Jerusalem, who had guns, carried out the attack around 07:40 in the morning.
The people who were attacking shot at innocent people who were waiting for buses and shuttles. They used a type of rifle called an M-16 and a handgun to do it.
Two off-duty Israeli soldiers and a civilian stopped the two terrorists before the police arrived.
The police said they have made the city safer by adding more patrols, setting up roadblocks, and checking people they think might be involved in the attack.
Officials are starting to look into the attack, said the spokesperson.
The Red Cross is helping to free hostages in Gaza with a team that is already there. Today, they will get information about where in Gaza they can pick up the things from Hamas. It might be one place where all 13 hostages will be released today, or it might be more than one place.
The surgery is difficult, and it could only happen if both sides stop fighting and trust the Red Cross to help. After the Red Cross saves the hostages, they will be brought to the border with Egypt and given to Israeli soldiers.
At the same time, another group from ICRC in Israel will make sure the Palestinian prisoners are healthy and want to go back home after Israel releases them.
The Red Cross has a lot of experience doing this kind of work.
In April, it helped 900 prisoners of war in Yemen to exchange places.
It doesn’t make deals like this, but it will help with the agreed plan to free the hostages.
As we have been telling you, Israel and Hamas have agreed to release 50 hostages and stop fighting for a while so that essential supplies can be sent to Gaza.
Hamas talked about how the break in fighting might happen in Gaza.
It says that drone and Israeli planes will not fly for four days in the southern area.
In the north, this will only happen from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm every day.
Israeli soldiers and tanks will stay in the area and not attack or arrest anyone, according to Hamas.
The agreement will also let 200 trucks with aid, four trucks with fuel, and four trucks with gas go into Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah crossing for four days.
Israeli soldiers have moved further into Gaza by more than two miles in their growing ground operation, according to a CNN analysis. Aid groups are expressing concern that the civil order is deteriorating, and hospitals are struggling with difficult orders to remove patients.
Israel recently said that it is starting a new phase of its fight against the militant group Hamas. It also mentioned that its troops on the ground in Gaza will get stronger, after weeks of aerial attacks on the area controlled by Hamas.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Saturday that the country is ready for a challenging and extended war. They are aiming to eliminate and completely defeat Hamas, the group responsible for the October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the death of over 1,400 individuals, mostly innocent civilians.
The increased operations caused leaders to worry about a bigger conflict in the region. The United Nations also called for a ceasefire to provide much-needed help to Gaza.
Latest update so fare
Israeli bombings at Al-Quds Hospital caused a lot of damage to different hospital areas and put the people living there and the patients at risk of suffocating, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
The medical organization said that Israel purposely did airstrikes very close to the hospital to make everyone leave, even though it is the second-largest hospital in Gaza City.
The facility is helping many sick people, while around 12,000 people who had to leave their homes are also staying there, the organization explained.
The organization was told by Israel to leave the hospital right away because it might get attacked. But the World Health Organization said it would be dangerous to move the patients.
The hospital is in the northern part of Wadi Gaza. Israel wants people in Gaza to go to the southern part of Wadi Gaza because they are targeting Hamas in the northern area.
Charity organizations have expressed their disapproval of the decision to evacuate, emphasizing the difficulties faced by ordinary people in Gaza when trying to move around while there are ongoing attacks happening. According to CNN, even those who have followed the order to evacuate have not been able to find safety.
The ICC prosecutor is saying that leaders will have to explain and give good reasons for every attack they make on any civilian object.
There are not enough water, food, and fuel and people are becoming desperate in the area. The area lost all communication from Friday night until Sunday morning.
On Sunday, services slowly started getting back to normal after the United States exerted pressure on Israel to take action.
On Sunday, the United Nations expressed concern that the situation in Gaza is getting worse, with indications that there is social chaos happening. They reported that many Palestinians, who are desperate for necessities like flour and hygiene products, are taking them from warehouses.
During a news conference, the boss of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said the situation in Gaza is getting worse very quickly. He asked for a ceasefire right away and for consistent help with basic needs for the people there.
Earlier, the United Nations officials said that the amount of help reaching Gaza was not sufficient to meet the requirements of the people there.
US President Joe Biden talked to Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Sunday about sending help to Gaza and making sure innocent people are safe.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah reported that the number of deaths in Gaza has increased to 7,960 since October 7. The data for this report comes from sources in the Hamas-controlled area.
Save the Children, a group that helps people in need, said that in the past three weeks, 3,000 children have been killed in Gaza. This number is more than the number of children who have been killed in wars around the world in each of the past four years.
The widespread destruction and a lot of people dying has made many people very angry and caused protests in the Middle East and other places.
Recently, a group of upset people in the Muslim majority area of Dagestan in Russia, got very angry and went into an airport. This happened after a plane came from Israel on Sunday. The airport had to be closed because of this and other flights had to be sent somewhere else. Expanded ground operations means increasing the number and scope of activities performed on land.
The video, recorded on Saturday and shown by an Israeli news source, is one of the first views of where Israeli soldiers have been since starting ground operations in Gaza on Friday night.
On Sunday, the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) announced that they had a shootout with Hamas and targeted buildings that had Hamas members inside.
In the Israeli city of Sderot, near the Gaza Strip boundary, a CNN team heard consistent machine gun shots on Sunday from the northern part of the area. At the same time, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were firing artillery and mortars from the southern border.
Israeli tanks and vehicles that protect soldiers were seen heading towards the border. At the same time, helicopters, drones, and fighter jets flew above.
The Israeli government is feeling pressure from the public to keep the 239 people held captive in Gaza safe. They are saying that their efforts to free these hostages are part of their plan.
Iran, a country that has supported Hamas for a long time, made new warnings over the weekend that the ongoing conflict could spread further.
Israel has done things in Gaza that are not acceptable, and this might make everyone feel like they have to do something about it, according to Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi. Jake Sullivan, who advises on US security, also mentioned that there is a higher chance of a conflict spreading to other areas in the Middle East.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia recently cautioned that there could be a risk of regional security being disrupted due to Israel’s increased activities.
Meanwhile, people are still asking for a break in fighting to help those who are suffering.
The United Nations Security Council will have a sudden meeting on Monday. The United Arab Emirates will request a decision on stopping the fighting temporarily for humanitarian reasons.
This means that a large majority of UN member states passed a resolution on Friday, asking for a continuous pause to help people in need.
Earlier this month, the United States said no to a proposed plan at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The plan wanted a temporary break to help people in trouble, but it didn’t criticize Hamas for their violent act.
In the past hour, we have heard loud sounds of war coming from the sea. We are in southern Israel, about 10km away from Gaza.
The loud sounds of big guns and tanks firing, Israeli military planes flying above, and a big cloud of smoke coming from Gaza show that something serious is happening there this morning.
In the past, Israelis have always had a tendency to take immediate action, address problems as they come up, act quickly and be a little reckless.
However, now there is some doubt or uncertainty. This is partly because of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s personality. Although he talks tough, he has never started a war for Israel.
He always is very careful and concerned about consequences, and he is afraid he might be forgotten in politics, especially if military action goes very wrong.
Netanyahu is already facing trial for very serious corruption charges. If found guilty, he might be sent to jail. This makes him worry about protecting himself, which further fuels his instinct to protect himself.
Also, there are 229 hostages which are making things more difficult.
Israeli people have had enough time to consider this matter. There are many people, including families, who strongly believe that sending soldiers into Gaza is dangerous. This belief is certainly one of the reasons the ground attack has been postponed. Tools that allow users to easily share an article with others.
As Israeli soldiers prepare for combat by watching airstrikes and artillery attacks in Gaza, and checking their personal weapons, communications, and gear, it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t secretly question if this is a trap.
Hamas, with support from Tehran, would have likely prepared for a strong Israeli attack on the ground after their frightening infiltration into Israel.
It is likely that Hamas wanted to make sure that Israel would react strongly, even if it meant hurting many innocent people in Gaza.
What Israel does next will decide what happens in the future, maybe for a long time. It all boils down to Gaza.
Hamas has built many tunnels in the Strip. It will have placed traps in the land above the surface, and it will have strategies to confront the IDF with different tactics like suicide bombers and capturing soldiers.
US military leaders and other government officials have been telling Israel about their experiences with big battles fought in cities.
In 2017, Iraq’s military, helped by American, British, and other special forces, and with constant air attacks, took nine months to remove ISIS from Mosul.
Almost all the people in the northern Iraqi city left, but the fighting was happening in each individual house. ISIS used hidden tunnels to surprise and attack the soldiers fighting to capture Mosul, which was a difficult and violent battle.
The bomb-making abilities of Hezbollah, a militant group from Lebanon that is closely connected to Hamas, have spread widely throughout the Middle East. They will find out that Hezbollah has improved their ability to destroy armored vehicles since Israel last fought in Lebanon in 2006. Israel was surprised by how advanced the militia’s tactics were back then.
Hamas now has weapons that can shoot down airplanes – Israel’s Apache helicopters, which help soldiers on the ground, could be easily targeted by one person using a surface to air missile.
Hamas probably has some people who are ready to film and promote videos of their attacks on Israeli soldiers. Films that show violence and bravery can make angry young men even more upset and extreme in their ideas. ISIS showed us that.
It’s likely that Hamas would have intended for a lot of destruction to happen in Gaza. That might be the goal of the second phase following the October 7 attacks.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that if there are any mistakes in carrying out genocide and forced displacement, it could have serious and bad effects in the region and for the people causing the conflict.
He is not trying to analyze, he is threatening.
The White House is aware of this. A plan to harm Israel could have serious and harmful effects, potentially leading to a conflict between different cultures, similar to what happened after 9/11.
President Joe Biden will be worried about the safety and well-being of American hostages in Gaza, as well as the more than 200 other people who are being held captive by Hamas and other groups in that area.
Since the weekend, CNN’s sources in Washington have been worried about the possibility of a big Israeli ground operation that could cause a major fire that spreads uncontrollably, similar to what happened in Iraq after the US-led invasion to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the prime minister of Israel, has been connecting Hamas and the Islamic State for a long time. He thinks that the Israel-Hamas conflict is a fight between different civilizations.
Hamas are being compared to the Nazis. He said that we need to fight against them just like how the world fought against the Nazis and ISIS together.
Hamas recently committed horrible acts of violence, but they are not the same as ISIS. Hamas has forcefully and actively tried to eliminate ISIS members in Gaza who followed a type of political Islam that Hamas strongly disagreed with.
Hamas wants to create a Palestinian country that follows the teachings of Islam. However, it does not claim or want to be a caliphate. Most importantly, it has never carried out any attacks in countries other than Israel and the Palestinian territories. Additionally, it has not used the internet to spread radical beliefs internationally.
Hamas wants to completely destroy the Jewish state.
“The fight against terror groups should be relentless,” said French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday in Israel.
However, he mentioned a warning that is based on both practical politics and morals: We should try to prevent the West from being dragged into a war that may be considered as a battle against Islam once again.
He said that the “struggle” should be tough, but fair.
This is a picture taken by a satellite and owned by Maxar Technologies in the year 2023.
Around 1,400 people died in the attacks carried out by Hamas inside Israel. More than 5,700 people have died in Gaza, as reported by Palestinian health officials. The Israel military is trying to reduce the number of innocent people getting hurt or killed.
The government has put a lot of restrictions on the 2. 3According to the UN, around 1. 4 million people have been forced to leave their homes within a small area of land.
If Israel starts a ground operation, the number of casualties will definitely increase. On each side.
People in many countries have been protesting against Israel because they think that Israel has caused a lot of damage to Gaza. If soldiers invade the land, it will be much worse – and the protests will be louder.
At the same time as Israel, the countries who want to destroy Israel have gathered in Lebanon.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had a meeting with Hamas deputy head Saleh Al-Arouri and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s secretary-general Ziad Al-Nakhla on Wednesday.
Hezbollah said in a statement that they assessed what the parties in the resistance axis need to do to achieve a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine and to stop the cruel aggression against their people.
We can be certain that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Brigade, which is Tehran’s main international military and intelligence group, were present. The Quds brigade has been teaching, giving money to, and showing the way to all three groups for a long time.
They will be trying to take advantage of Israel’s next actions in Gaza as their own second part of the October 7 attacks.
Hezbollah has been causing conflicts with Israel along the border of southern Lebanon. This is diverting the attention of Israeli forces away from just focusing on Gaza. The US has accused Iran of using Iraqi groups to attack American logistic bases in Baghdad. The situation in Yemen has been tense because the Houthis, who are supported by Iran, tried to launch missiles at Israel. However, the United States successfully stopped these missile attacks.
Many Americans, Europeans, and Australians are being told to leave Middle Eastern countries near Israel.
John Kirby, the person who speaks for the US National Security Council, said on Monday that the government is carefully monitoring any indications that groups supported by Iran might be increasing their attacks on US military forces in the Middle East.
Iran could be attempting to divert the attention of the United States from Israel, but it could also be provoking the US to engage in more disagreement.
The US is working to prevent that conflict. CNN reported that Biden is urging people to be careful when talking to Israel’s Prime Minister. He has made the private discussions stronger by seeking advice from the public.
He said that when you see what has happened to mothers, fathers, grandparents, sons, daughters, children, and even babies, it’s natural to demand justice. But he warned that while you feel angry, don’t let it take over you completely. After the 9/11 attacks, we were very angry in the United States. We saw fairness and received fairness, but we also made errors.
The mistakes caused the US-led invasion of Iraq, which made many people think that Islam was being attacked by the Western countries. This led to chaos in the Middle East and the creation of the Islamic State or Caliphate, along with terror attacks happening all over the world.
When President Biden tells the Israeli government not to make the same mistakes as it did in Afghanistan, he knows what he’s talking about because he has been through it himself. Karin von Hippel, who used to give advice to the US military on fighting terrorism, said that after 9/11, the US reacted too strongly and lost a lot of the goodwill that was initially there. This happened because of decisions like going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That is what most people believe.
Martin Sherman, who leads the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies and has always supported a stricter approach towards neighboring countries that pose a threat to Israel, holds a different opinion.
He thinks Israel should enter Gaza forcefully.
“He said that he doesn’t believe Arabs will ever fully accept Israel. He thinks Israel should aim to be feared and perhaps reluctantly accepted. ”
The soldiers of the IDF are getting ready at their meeting points, preparing for a possibly big fight in Gaza. They might also think about whether their sons might have to go back there in the future and become tough warriors.
A day after incursions that resulted in the deaths of at least 10 persons between the ages of 16 and 23 and the injury of about 100 others, Israeli soldiers carried out military operations in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin for a second night.
According to Palestinian officials, thousands of people left their houses at the refugee camp overnight after electricity and water facilities there were severely damaged.
In a joint statement released Tuesday morning, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) claimed that they had engaged in “counter-terrorism activities in Jenin and Jenin Camp” using information from the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) and Israel Border Police.
The operation was continuing on the same day a car-ramming and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv left at least eight people injured.
The military operation remained ongoing Tuesday morning with Israeli forces searching for 10 remaining primary targets in the Jenin refugee camp, according to the IDF. At least 120 people have been detained, the Israeli force said.
IDF chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Twitter that there “is no point in the [Jenin] camp” that they have not entered, including the center.
Hagari said the IDF has carried out a “large number of raids, ambushes, destruction of laboratories, and explosives” and that so far, “non-combatants” have not been killed.
“We allowed all the women and children to leave the camp on their own initiative,” Hagari said.
Ten Palestinians have been killed so far, with more than 100 injured. The IDF previously acknowledged civilians are among the injured.
Thousands of Palestinians evacuated the camp overnight, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Video from Tuesday morning in Jenin shows torn-up streets, which the IDF said was to disarm IEDs, and smoke rising over the refugee camp, where the Israeli military operations took place.
The IDF said Tuesday it located and neutralized an “underground shaft used to store explosive devices in the heart of the Jenin Camp” and IDF soldiers “located and dismantled two operational situation rooms belonging to terrorist organizations in the area.”
Its soldiers also confiscated weapons, explosives and military equipment in Jenin and “neutralized a grenade launcher,” according to the IDF.
A military source said Monday the operation is the largest military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin in more than 20 years.
Striking “terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF on Monday carried out around 10 airstrikes using drones, and hundreds of soldiers targeted what it said was a militant “command and control” center as well as weapons and explosive manufacturing sites. Its goal, the IDF said, was to dismantle Jenin as a “safe haven” for militants.
In pictures: Israel launches massive raid in West Bank city
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Discussing the first day of the Israeli military operation, Jenin resident Lina Amouri, 35, said her family hid from the gunfire until they heard mosques announcing the evacuation.
“We were all hiding in one apartment that didn’t have windows so we don’t risk anyone getting hit by a bullet. Three women and six children aged 1 to 9, since 5 a.m., with no electricity or internet connection. It was a horrifying day,” she said.
“The children were crying all day and we didn’t know how to calm them down, the only thing we could do is to pray together while we hear explosions and bulldozers outside.”
Amouri also compared the scene to a natural disaster.
“When we first went out to see what’s happening it was a totally different place, all streets were plowed, water and sewage pipes were broken, electricity poles were down, cars were piled one on the other. It felt like a storm with earthquake have just passed by.”
Duha Turkman, a 16-year-old Jenin resident, said they heard an announcement form the mosque loudspeakers saying they had two hours to evacuate. It’s unclear where the directive came from, the IDF told CNN no one was asked to leave the camp.
“We ran out with people from the camp, so many children walked with their parents while terrified and crying, they didn’t understand what was happening to them and why,” she told CNN. “Many were missing; families were looking for members that they couldn’t get in contact with due to the electricity cut.”
Turkman told CNN that before evacuating, her family’s home was taken over by Israeli forces as the operation got underway, leaving the apartment “upside down.”
“They invaded our house in the early morning, they locked us all in one room, five women and two children in one room, and in another room, they locked five men – my father, brothers and uncles,” she said.
“They took the house as snipers’ position to attack the camp, meanwhile we couldn’t use a toilet, get to the kitchen or do anything but sit in the room and listen to the explosions outside.”
CNN cannot independently verify the accounts of these two eyewitnesses.
Jenin deputy mayor Mohammed Jarrar said homes and infrastructure had been destroyed, cutting off electricity and water in the refugee camp.
Aid agencies accused Israeli forces of obstructing access to the camp and impeding the medical response, claims the IDF denies.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said some crews were prevented from operating within the camp, according to the director of the Palestinian Red Crescent society in Jenin, Mahmoud al-Saadi. And the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also accused Israeli forces of impeding access to medical care in Jenin. The IDF said ambulances had a “free pass” in the camp.
On Tuesday morning, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said the body of the 10th Palestinian person to be killed was discovered in Jenin. Earlier, the ministry said five of those killed in the attack were teenagers and of the 100 wounded, 20 were in serious condition.
Hagari, the IDF spokesperson, acknowledged on Monday that civilians were among the injured, but insisted the operation only meant to target “terrorists.”
“It’s not an invasion on Jenin, it’s not against the Palestinian Authority. It’s not against innocent, innocent Palestinians. It’s against terrorists in this camp,” he said.
The incursion sparked immediate condemnation. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called the large-scale Israeli military operation “a new war crime” while Egypt called the Israeli incursion an act of “aggression.”
Militant group Hamas called on all its cells in the West Bank and Jerusalem to strike Israel “by all available means,” a statement by its military wing said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military acted “against terrorist strongholds in Jenin.”
“In recent months, Jenin has become a safe haven for terrorists. Terrorists perpetrated savage attacks, murdering Israeli civilians, men, women, and children, as many children as they could find,” Netanyahu said at a US embassy event in Jerusalem on Monday evening.
