The Israeli army confirmed today that it had "eliminated more than 15 terrorists and detained 40 wanted individuals" during a major military operation that began last week in Jenin, a stronghold of armed Palestinian groups in the occupied West Bank.
Dozens of weapons were seized, the military added in a statement, and reported that a hidden bomb was found in a building in the city, and that explosive devices planted along the roads were deactivated.
"A command and observation center has been located, with gas cylinders for the production of explosive devices," the military added.
Soldiers, supported by bulldozers, aircraft and armored military vehicles, launched Operation Iron Wall in Jenin on January 21, two days after the start of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he wants to eradicate terrorism in Jenin, a city located next to a refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967.
Salim al-Saadi, a member of the camp's management committee, told AFP that 80 percent of the camp's residents had left since the start of the operation.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) reports on its website that more than 24.000 refugees were registered in the camp in 2023, although this does not accurately represent the number of people currently there, writes Agence France-Presse.
Several Palestinian officials said Israel had issued an order to leave the camp, which the army denied.
The Palestinian Authority's Health Ministry has so far reported 12 deaths in the Israeli operation.
Violence in the West Bank has exploded during the Gaza war. Since October 2023, more than 860 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army or Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. At the same time, according to Zael, at least 29 Israelis, including several soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or in military operations.
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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Israel to halt its order to expel UNRWA from Jerusalem.
"I regret this decision and call on the Government of Israel to reverse it," Guterres wrote in a letter dated Monday, stressing the agency's "irreplaceable" role in humanitarian efforts and rejecting Israeli claims of sovereignty over East Jerusalem, which is considered occupied territory under international law, Al Jazeera reported.
The Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank has entered its second week.
On Monday, the army expanded its operations in Jenin to Tulkarm. After carrying out an airstrike on a car, occupation forces raided the Nur Shams refugee camp, Al Jazeera reported.
Hamas says two of its members were killed in the attack. The latest Israeli offensive in the occupied West Bank has killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded dozens.
Two Palestinians, including a journalist, were injured in an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank, medical sources and local media reported.
The official Wafa news agency reported that the journalist suffered shrapnel wounds to her right arm while reporting on an Israeli military operation in the eastern city of Tulkarm, Al Jazeera reported.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said a 20-year-old man was also injured and was taken to hospital for treatment.
The Israeli army continued its military operation in the Tulkarm refugee camp for the second day in a row.
At least two people have been killed since Monday, dozens have been injured, and hundreds of families have been displaced.
This attack represents an expansion of the ongoing military operation in the nearby Jenin refugee camp, where at least 21 people have been killed and 16 injured since January 50.
Arva Damon, founder of the International Aid, Relief and Support Network, says that while the number of aid trucks arriving in Gaza has increased significantly since the ceasefire, displaced people in the enclave still lack many basic items – including tents.
"Only a few hundred tents have been moved to the north, where all these families are arriving," Damon told Al Jazeera.
She said that many people moving from the southern Gaza Strip were forced to leave their tents behind because they were mostly makeshift structures or not easily transportable.
Damon emphasized that most people returning north do not have vehicles and must walk, taking only what they can carry with them.
"So they arrive in the north where they have no shelter but access to very little clean drinking water," she said.
The United States supports Israel's decision to ban the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA and cut off all contacts with it, the US envoy to the UN said at a Security Council meeting on Tuesday.
UNRWA was ordered to vacate its East Jerusalem headquarters by Thursday, after laws passed by the Israeli parliament in October banned its activities in Israel and the Palestinian territories and designated it a terrorist organization.
"The United States supports the implementation of this decision," said Dorothy Shea, the US representative to the UN, who suggested that UNRWA officials were "exaggerating the effects of the law."
Israel claims that about a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 attacks and that some of the hostages taken by Hamas were being held in UNRWA facilities in Gaza, which include schools, clinics and warehouses.
Shay called for a "full and independent investigation to assess these very serious allegations."
"Unfortunately, this is consistent with a pattern of serious allegations of misuse of UN facilities - particularly UNRWA facilities - by Hamas terrorists," she said.
Several investigations, including one last year led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, have identified "problems related to neutrality" at UNRWA, but have stressed that Israel has not provided evidence for its central claims.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reports that the death toll from the Gaza conflict is likely an underestimate, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, according to the Guardian.
Since the beginning of the conflict, many have raised questions about the reliability of the ministry's statistics, given that Gaza still has a Hamas-led government.
According to the ministry's current figures, the death toll stands at 47.354 people, including at least 12.298 women and 17.841 children, and 111.563 injured.
When asked on Tuesday how much confidence the WHO has in these figures, Christian Lindmeier replied: "Regarding the number of deaths, yes, we have confidence."
"But let's not forget, the official death toll provided by the Ministry of Health refers to deaths recorded in morgues and hospitals, that is, in official facilities."
"As people return to their homes and begin searching for their loved ones under the rubble, the death toll is expected to rise."
Fourteen Jordanian helicopters and two Italian army helicopters took off from the King Abdullah II military base in northern Jordan, beginning what Jordan is announcing as an aid delivery, the Guardian reports.
The aircraft were carrying food and medical supplies and landed on a runway in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.
Jordan announced that it would hand over the aid to the World Food Programme (WFP), whose teams would be responsible for distributing aid to people in Gaza.
On Monday, tens of thousands of people displaced to southern Gaza by the conflict began returning to the north.
A Jordanian government spokesman told reporters that the aid deliveries were intended to "alleviate their suffering."
Israel's envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said that Israel would cut off all communication and cooperation with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, as well as with all other bodies acting on its behalf.
"Israel will cease all cooperation, communication and contact with UNRWA or anyone acting on its behalf," the AFP news agency quoted Danon as saying ahead of a UN Security Council meeting.
Israel's ban on the UN relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, is jeopardizing the chances of peace in the region, the head of the body has said.
Filip Lazarini told a UN Security Council meeting: "Continued attacks on UNRWA are harming the lives and futures of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories," the Guardian reports.
"This undermines their trust in the international community, jeopardizing any prospects for peace and security."
UNRWA was ordered to vacate its East Jerusalem headquarters by Thursday, following a law passed by the Israeli parliament in October banning its work in Israel and the Palestinian territories and designating it a terrorist organization.
Although most of UNRWA's activities take place in the West Bank and Gaza, its work depends largely on agreements with Israel, including access to border crossings into Gaza, for the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says one of its ambulances was hit by Israeli sniper fire in the Tal as-Sultan area, west of Rafah in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
A video posted online by the organization shows what appears to be a bullet hole in an ambulance.
During the past 15 months of Israeli attacks on Gaza, Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on PRCS doctors and other medical personnel.
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