Israel’s armed forces launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to five rockets fired by Palestinian militants as their units began to withdraw from Jenin after a two-day wide-ranging operation in the area in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

Twelve Palestinians and an Israeli NCO were killed during this operation, centered on the Jenin refugee camp, which began in the early hours of Monday.

It was the largest operation by Chahal – the Israeli army – in the West Bank in years.

Hundreds of soldiers were mobilized, armored vehicles, remote-controlled drones, construction machinery that destroyed buildings and roads.

Last Tuesday night his units began withdrawing from Jenin, his spokesman told AFP.

“Israeli troops have begun withdrawing from Jenin,” the spokesman said, without elaborating.

Israeli television networks broadcast footage showing military vehicles leaving the area and returning to Israeli territory.

Five rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip against southern Israel triggering the activation of air defense warning sirens, the Israeli military announced in the early hours of the morning. All were intercepted by arrays of the Israeli anti-missile defense system and according to the information so far there were no casualties or damage, according to the same source.

There has been no claim of responsibility by any Palestinian movement so far.

The Israeli army “responded” by shelling the Gaza Strip. An AFP source in the Palestinian security forces said a military installation of Hamas, the Islamist faction in power in the enclave since 2007, had been hit, but there were no reports of injuries.

Yesterday, a car plowed into people in Tel Aviv, injuring seven people, an action that Hamas praised as “a first response to the crimes against our people in the Jenin camp.”

At the scene, Israeli police chief Yaakov Shabtai said “the terrorist” behind the wheel of the car was a resident of the West Bank and added that he was killed by gunfire from a passing Israeli citizen.

In Jenin, where UAVs were constantly flying, shops remained closed yesterday, an AFP correspondent found, as the Israeli operation continued.

The nearly deserted streets were strewn with debris and stones, the asphalt had disintegrated, the sidewalks were blackened around makeshift barricades.

The situation in the refugee camp is “catastrophic,” Jenin Mayor Nidal Abu Saleh said, citing power and water outages.

Palestinian Health Minister May al-Kaila called the Israeli operation “an attack that violates international law” during a press conference on Tuesday.

“open war”

The army said it hit a “joint operations command center” of an armed group, the Jenin Brigade, and several other “targets”, including six “explosives manufacturing workshops”.

“We will act as long as necessary to root out terrorism,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday during a visit to an Israeli military base not far from the city.

“We will not allow Jenin to become a safe haven for terrorism again,” he added.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry, 12 Palestinians were killed and another 100 were injured, 20 of them in serious condition.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced yesterday that the Israeli army launched an “open war against the population of Jenin”.

The town and the adjacent refugee camp, home to 18,000 people, have been repeatedly targeted by Israeli military operations.

More broadly, the northern West Bank, an area occupied by Israel since 1967, has recently seen a surge in attacks against Israelis and settler raids against Palestinians.

‘Worst raid in five years’

The Israeli raid yesterday Monday caused the exodus of “about 3,000” residents of the camp, according to Kamal Abu al-Roub, the deputy governor of Jenin.

“We received a lot of wounded people,” mostly “from bullets,” said Kasem Benigander, a 35-year-old paramedic.

“This is the worst raid in five years,” he added.

A doctor at the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin stressed, however, that the wounded succumbed because they were not offered timely treatment.

“Some died, the condition of others worsened,” said Tawfiq al-Shubaki, explaining that the destruction caused by the Israeli army in the camp made it very difficult for ambulances and any other vehicle to access and move.

“All options are open to hit the enemy,” declared Palestinian Islamic Jihad, while Hamas leader Ismail Haniya denounced the “barbaric” Israeli operation.

The Arab League said it was holding an emergency meeting on Tuesday, while Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, Arab countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel, denounced the operation.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, ruled yesterday that the violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank “must stop”.

Israel has a “right to defend itself” but must respect “proportionality” as defined in “international law”, Germany’s Foreign Ministry ruled yesterday.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called on the Israeli military to “show restraint in its operation and for all parties to avoid escalation.”

Since the beginning of the year, at least 190 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, a Ukrainian woman and an Italian have been killed in violent incidents linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an AFP tally based on official statements by Israeli and Palestinian authorities.