May 18, 2024
JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli military raided the West Bank city of Jenin on Monday, striking the refugee camp with helicopter gunships.
The Israeli military said that helicopters fired at Palestinian gunmen as security forces tried to extract damaged vehicles from the camp.
Palestinian militants targeted Israeli military vehicles with a powerful roadside bomb, disabling five armored vehicles, said Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht. Israeli troops were trapped inside the mangled vehicles for hours, he said, adding that the army flooded the camp with troops and heavy vehicles in order to evacuate them.
The militants’ use of a roadside bomb in the West Bank was “very unusual and dramatic,” Hecht said.
The raid has triggered the most ferocious fighting in the occupied territory in years, killing five Palestinians, and wounding over 91 others, health officials said, including 12 in critical condition.
The Israeli military said seven members of the paramilitary border police and the army suffered light and moderate wounds.
During nearly 10 hours of fighting, Israeli security forces faced off against Palestinian militants with gunfire, armored bulldozers and missile fire from at least one Apache helicopter.
Israeli security forces rarely deploy airpower to strike Palestinian militant targets in the West Bank.
It was the first such use of a helicopter gunship in the occupied West Bank since the second Palestinian uprising some two decades ago, Israeli media reported. The Jenin refugee camp, long a militant stronghold, witnessed some of the biggest battles at the time.
