Israel says it killed Palestinian attackers as attack on Jenin continues

Israel says it has killed two armed men suspected of carrying out a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank earlier this month that killed three Israelis.

Qutaiba Shalabi and Mohammed Nazzal were killed after a fierce gun battle with Israeli forces on Wednesday night in Burkina, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says their bodies were taken by Israeli forces and the house they were in was demolished.

Hamas issued a statement claiming that they were its fighters.

Israel has been waging a major military operation in and around Jenin since Tuesday.

Army vehicles are controlling entry of medical staff and ambulances to the main hospital, and have blocked access to the Jenin refugee camp – which is home to both civilians and armed Palestinian groups.

Twelve Palestinians, including Shalabi and Nazzal, were reported killed in the operation and dozens were injured.

Israel says its goal here is to destroy armed groups supported by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and prevent them from carrying out attacks against Israeli targets.

He is concerned that the West Bank will become the next center of Iranian influence and weapons.

But the show of force here after the ceasefire in Gaza is also good for the Israelis who want not only to continue the war there, but also to occupy the West Bank.

Some of those killed in Jenin are understood to have been civilians.

Locals said Ahmed al-Shayeb was a mobile phone shop owner – a well-known businessman, not a fighter.

He was shot dead by Israeli forces as he drove through a road near the refugee camp of Jenin in a car with his 10-year-old son Taim.

“They started firing and one bullet hit him,” Taim told reporters at his father’s funeral on Wednesday.

“They said ‘Lord, Lord’, then the car hit the pavement. I saw two army vehicles coming towards us. They started firing towards the car, but I jumped and ran.”

The Israeli Army says the incident is being reviewed.

The streets of the Jenin camp – some of them torn up by military bulldozers – are guarded by small groups of soldiers, who raised their weapons as we approached.

Fierce fighting was reported inside the camp on Tuesday night and many residents were trying to escape on Wednesday.

One person told us that before being checked by drone, residents were being separated into groups of five by the military, and either arrested or allowed to leave.

We watched a small group of adults and children pick their way through the soldiers over broken earth and concrete, one man holding his infant son high above his head.

He told us that military bulldozers had reached the middle of the camp, and he was concerned that the operation there was about to begin in earnest.

“There are still a lot of people inside the camp – the elderly, the sick and children,” he said. “They can’t go. God help them.”

He said the raid is different from several other raids conducted by Israel since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza.

“This time it’s different – ​​they’re attacking everywhere. It’s like Gaza,” he said.

Next to her, Kefa Sehwal, 52, said she had lost 15 of her family members since then.

“After what happened in Gaza (with Israeli forces), here is the reaction,” he told me. “They are taking it out on us.”

Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, has called for a “change in strategy” for this operation, saying that the lesson from Gaza is not just to “eliminate the terrorists”, as he said, but to prevent them from coming back.

That plan didn’t work in Gaza. It is not clear whether this will work in Jenin.