Israel kills prominent militant as it wages its deadliest West Bank raids since the Gaza war began
TULKARM, West Bank — The Israeli military said it killed five more militants, including a local commander, early Thursday in the West Bank as it pressed ahead with what appeared to be the deadliest military operation in the occupied territory since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israel says the simultaneous raids across the northern West Bank — which have killed a total of 16 people, nearly all militants, since late Tuesday — are aimed at preventing attacks. The Palestinians see them as a widening of the Israel-Hamas war aimed at perpetuating Israel’s decades-long military rule over the territory.
The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed that Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, was killed during a raid in the city of Tulkarm. He became a hero for many Palestinians earlier in the year when he was reportedly killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.
The military said he was killed Thursday along with four other militants in a shootout with Israeli forces after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more.
The army also said that another militant was arrested in the operation in Tulkarm, and that a member of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police was lightly wounded.
Israel has launched a major military operation in the occupied West Bank that has killed at least 10 Hamas militants.
Israel launched a large-scale operation in the West Bank overnight Tuesday. Hamas said 10 of its fighters were killed in different locations, and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported an 11th death, without saying whether the victim was a fighter or a civilian.
The secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, called for an immediate halt to the deadly raids, asking Israel’s government to comply with its obligations under international law and take measures to protect civilians.
“These dangerous developments are fueling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank and further undermining the Palestinian Authority,” he said in a statement from his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
The overall toll of 16 killed in less than two days would make it the deadliest Israeli operation in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in Gaza.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says more than 650 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war. Most appear to have been militants killed in gun battles during Israeli operations such as the one this week, but civilian bystanders and rock-throwing protesters have also been killed, and the territory saw a surge of Jewish settler violence. Israel says the operations are required to prevent attacks on its citizens, which have also risen since the start of the war.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen some of its worst violence since the war in nearby Gaza began. Body of missing Israeli teen found.
Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East War, and the Palestinians want all three territories for a future state.
The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering towns and cities. Over 500,000 Jewish settlers, who have Israeli citizenship, live in well over 100 settlements across the territory that most of the international community considers illegal.
The raids have focused on refugee camps that date back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, in which around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of what is now Israel. Many of the camps are militant strongholds.
Hamas repeated its calls for Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up, calling the raids part of a larger plan to expand the war in Gaza. The militant group has urged security forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which cooperate with Israel, to “join the sacred battle of our people.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has also condemned the Israeli raids, but his forces were not expected to get involved.
Israel’s army says two airstrikes in the West Bank have killed nine Palestinian militants as violence flares again in the Israeli-occupied territory.
The war in Gaza erupted when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. The militants are still believed to be holding 108 hostages, around a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released during a November cease-fire.
Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants or civilians. Around 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, and Israeli bombardment and ground operations have caused vast destruction.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to mediate a cease-fire that would see the remaining hostages released.
But the talks have repeatedly bogged down as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed “total victory” over Hamas and the militant group has demanded a lasting cease-fire and a full withdrawal from the territory.
Mohammed and Lidman write for the Associated Press. Lidman reported from Jerusalem. AP writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
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