Gaza militants have fired rockets at Israel in retaliation of Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank that killed nine Palestinians, including at least seven militants and a 61-year-old woman.
It was the deadliest single raid in the territory in over two decades. The outbreak in violence poses an early test for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government and casts a shadow on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s expected trip to the region next week.
Of the five rockets fired at Israel, three were intercepted, one fell in an open area and another fell short inside Gaza, the military said. It said that the airstrikes targeted an underground rocket manufacturing site for Hamas as well as militant training areas.
Both the Palestinian rockets and Israeli airstrikes seemed limited so as to prevent escalation into a full-blown war. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several smaller clashes since the militant group seized power in Gaza from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.
Thursday’s deadly raid in the Jenin refugee camp was likely to reverberate on Friday as the Hamas had earlier threatened revenge for the raid.
Raising the stakes, the Palestinian Authority declared that it would halt the ties that its security forces maintain with Israel in a shared effort to contain Islamic militants.
Previous threats have been short-lived, in part because of the benefits the authority enjoys from the relationship and also due to U.S. and Israeli pressure to maintain it.
The Palestinian Authority already has limited control over scattered enclaves in the West Bank, and almost none over militant strongholds like the Jenin camp But the announcement could pave the way for Israel to step up operations it says are needed to prevent attacks.
On Thursday, Israeli forces went on heightened alert as Palestinians filled the streets across the West Bank, chanting in solidarity with Jenin. President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning, and in the refugee camp, residents dug a mass grave for the dead.
Palestinian Authority Spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said that Abbas had decided to cut security coordination in “light of the repeated aggression against our people.” He added that the Palestinians planned to file complaints with the U.N. Security Council, International Criminal Court and other international bodies.
Civilian Casualties In Jenin Were “Quite Regrettable”
Barbara Leaf, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, disclosed that the Biden administration was deeply concerned about the situation and that civilian casualties reported in Jenin were “quite regrettable.”
However, Leaf also said that the Palestinian announcement to suspend security ties and to pursue the matter at international organizations was a mistake.
Thursday’s gun battle that left nine dead and 20 wounded erupted when Israel’s military conducted a rare daytime operation in the Jenin camp that it said was meant to prevent an imminent attack on Israelis.
The camp, where the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group has a major foothold, has been a focus of near-nightly Israeli arrest raids.
Hamas’ armed wing claimed four of the dead as members, while Islamic Jihad claimed three others.
Israel’s new national security minister, far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who seeks to grant legal immunity to Israeli soldiers who shoot Palestinians, posted a video of himself beaming triumphantly and congratulating security forces.
Palestinian Health Minister, May Al-Kaila, said paramedics struggled to reach the wounded during the fighting, while Akram Rajoub, the Governor of Jenin, said the military prevented emergency workers from evacuating them.
U.N. Middle East envoy, Tor Wennesland, opined that he was “deeply alarmed and saddened” by the violence. Condemnations came from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Turkey, which recently reestablished full diplomatic ties with Israel.
Neighboring Jordan, as well as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries also condemned the Israeli raid.
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