The United Nations Organization demanded yesterday Thursday the “immediate” end of the large-scaleof the Israeli army’s deadly military operation in the West Bank, while describing the suffering of civilians in the Gaza Strip as “beyond” what any human being can “endure.”

The Israeli armed forces, for their part, announced that they had killed seven Palestinian militants on the second day of the operation against armed movements, in which at least 16 people died in 48 hours.

Expressing his “deep concern”, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Thursday via X for their “immediate termination”, condemning “strongly the loss of human life, including children”.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned against the continuation of “military operations near hospitals” and highlighted that infrastructure had been “severely damaged”, with electricity and telecommunications cut in some areas.

The Israeli army began this “anti-terrorist” operation last Wednesday, sending armored columns to Jenin, Toumbas and Tulkarem, as well as to refugee camps near them, in the northern part of the West Bank, where various Palestinian militias are active. lineups.

Until yesterday he spoke of nine militants dead, before announcing that seven more were killed: two in Jenin, five others, hidden according to him “inside a mosque”, in the Nur Shams camp of Tulkarem. One was reportedly a senior official of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Hamas-allied organization.

His movement confirmed his death.

However, according to the head of the local government in Tulkarem, Mustafa Takatka, the five fighters were killed when “a rocket hit a house”, without any previous battle.

The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry also reported 16 deaths. Among them, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, were two teenagers, aged 13 and 17; the Israeli army labeled them “terrorists”.

Clashes continued yesterday afternoon in Jenin, while Israeli soldiers were operating in Tulkarem, AFP journalists found.

The Israeli armed forces, however, withdrew from the refugee camp in Toumbas, according to eyewitnesses.

Israel wants to “put pressure on the resistance,” but every “Zionist escalation” strengthens it, said Mohamed Mansour, a local politician, from Toumbas.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, at least 45 people have been arrested since Wednesday. The Israeli army spoke of ten arrests.

Israeli operations in the autonomous Palestinian territories are practically daily in the West Bank, a Palestinian area under Israeli occupation since 1967. But they are very rarely on this scale.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which is now in its 329th day, violence in the West Bank has taken off.

The UN reported last Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians have been killed there since then. On the other hand, at least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or operations, according to official Israeli data.

In the Gaza Strip, which is still being hammered by the Israeli army, which is also involved in ground fighting, civil protection said yesterday that eight people were killed in an Israeli shelling of Gaza City (north). Another three Palestinians were killed in a drone strike in Rafah (south), an AFP medical source said.

For their part, the Israeli armed forces announced yesterday that during the last 24 hours they had killed “dozens” of militants, including one who had participated in the October 7 attack against them.

The Israeli military says it is continuing ground operations in Rafah, the Khan Younis area (south) and the Deir al-Bala district (central).

Displaced persons returned to eastern sectors of this city yesterday — to find their homes destroyed, some leveled.

“We lost everything,” said Ibrahim al-Tabaan, trying to collect some things from the wreckage.

“What happened to our elemental humanity?” asked Joyce Misuya, interim head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) yesterday, addressing members of the Security Council, describing the suffering of the people of Gaza beyond what “any human being could endure”.

The vast majority of the 2.4 million residents of the Palestinian enclave have been displaced, often multiple times, in the coming 11 months of armed conflict.

A unique glimmer of hope: an official of the World Health Organization announced yesterday that the Israeli authorities have agreed to a series of “humanitarian pauses”, three days each, and several hours each day, in the Palestinian enclave, so that a polio vaccination campaign can begin from Sunday, after the detection of the first confirmed case after 25 years was announced.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night that it would not be a “ceasefire so that polio vaccination can take place” but “the making available of certain areas” in the Gaza Strip for this purpose.

Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel left 1,199 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

Another 251 people were kidnapped that day, of whom 103 are still being held hostage in the Palestinian enclave, but 33 have been declared dead by Israeli forces

Family members of hostages on the Israeli side gathered yesterday near the border with Gaza; they shouted messages on loudspeakers to their relatives in the hope that they would be heard.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Thursday reaffirmed her support for Israel’s right to “defend itself” and answered “no” when asked if she would consider a suspension if elected president in November. arms deliveries to Israel.

Wide-scale Israeli military retaliatory operations in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war have killed at least 40,602 people, according to the Palestinian movement’s health ministry, which did not specify how many were fighters and how many civilians. However, according to the UN, most of the victims are women and children.