AFP Videos – France
West Bank: Israeli army withdraws from Jenin after large-scale operation
The Israeli army withdrew Friday from the city of Jenin after a large “anti-terrorist” operation in the occupied West Bank, continuing its offensive in the Gaza Strip, after almost eleven months of war with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. The United States on Thursday urged Israel and Hamas to finalize a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, while the two sides accused each other of causing the negotiations to fail. During a visit to Israel, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also called Friday for a “ceasefire now”, estimating that “the pure military approach” did not offer a solution to the war. The war in Gaza, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7, has left tens of thousands dead and caused enormous destruction and a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian territory where 2.4 million people live. – Vast destruction – Since October 7, the Violence has flared up in the West Bank, and the army launched a vast “anti-terrorist” operation on August 28 in the north of this territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where armed groups fighting against Israel are particularly active. The raids, regular in the West Bank but which have rarely reached such a scale, have focused on Jenin and its surroundings, and have been accompanied by significant destruction according to witnesses and AFP journalists. According to residents, Israeli soldiers withdrew during the night from Jenin and its refugee camp. “To date, 14 terrorists have been eliminated, more than 30 suspects have been arrested” in Jenin, the Israeli army said in a statement on Friday, without however announcing the end of its operation. According to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health, a total of 36 Palestinians aged 13 to 82 have been killed by the Israeli army in the north from the West Bank since August 28. The army announced for its part that one of its soldiers had fallen in combat in Jenin on August 31. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Ms Baerbock on Friday that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei wanted to “arm Judea and Samaria (the West Bank, editor’s note) like Gaza”. At the same time, the Israeli army is continuing its offensive in the Gaza Strip, where the Civil Defense reported injuries in the Israeli bombing of a house in Bureij, in the center of the territory. – “Blind bias” – The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths on the Israeli side of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 97 are still being held in Gaza, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the army. The Israeli operations, which have caused a humanitarian and health catastrophe in the besieged Gaza Strip, have left 40,878 dead, according to the Hamas government’s Health Ministry, which does not provide details on the number of civilians and fighters killed. According to the UN, the majority of the dead are women and children. With Qatar and Egypt, the United States, Israel’s main ally, has been mediating for months to convince the two sides to reach an agreement. The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, confirmed American assessments that 90% of the agreement was ready. “It is really up to both sides to reach an agreement on the remaining issues,” he said at a press conference. For his part, Khalil al-Haya, a member of Hamas’ political bureau based in Qatar, estimated that if the United States “really” wanted to reach a ceasefire, it had to “abandon its blind bias for the Zionist occupation and put real pressure on Netanyahu.” – Netanyahu inflexible – Since the announcement on Sunday of the discovery in Gaza of the bodies of six Israeli hostages, killed “point-blank” by Hamas according to the Israeli army, Mr. Netanyahu has been under strong pressure to reach an agreement allowing the release of the hostages. But the prime minister remains inflexible, having vowed to destroy Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and is considered a terrorist movement by the United States and the European Union. Among the sticking points for an agreement is Mr. Netanyahu’s desire to maintain Israeli control over the Philadelphia Corridor, a buffer zone along the border between Gaza and Egypt, to prevent Hamas from bringing weapons into the Palestinian territory or exfiltrating hostages or some of its fighters through tunnels to Egypt. “No agreement is being negotiated,” Mr. Netanyahu said on the American channel Fox News. Hamas insists on the implementation as is of a plan announced on May 31 by American President Joe Biden, which provides for a six-week truce accompanied by a partial Israeli withdrawal and the release of hostages, then eventually a total Israeli withdrawal from the territory. lsb-vl/bfi
Related News :