Middle East: Israel says it killed Hamas' Jenin commander

Since the Israeli military began its large-scale raids targeting militants in the northern West Bank, many residents of the city of Tulkarem appear to be staying in the relative safety of their homes.

Nur Shams, one of the city's refugee camps, was largely blocked off while the Israeli military operated there on Wednesday afternoon. Ambulances and firefighters were waiting to enter the area. Most of Tulkarem's streets were empty, and many shops were closed, partly due to a general strike in the area.

Khaled Al Khouli looked down from his balcony in an apartment block just a five-minute drive from Nur Shams.

"The situation is difficult, the army comes and goes. Their movements are not normal," he told DW.

A military bulldozer has partially torn up the road next door, and the water pipes have been damaged, he said.

"We hear the bulldozers, the shooting. There is bombing in Gaza, now there is bombing in the refugee camp and here in Tulkarem," he said. As a military vehicle approached, he hurried back inside.

Raids by the Israeli military are a near-daily occurrence in the occupied West Bank, disrupting the lives of Palestinian residents in villages and towns across the territory. Israel says theraids aim to prevent attacks and track down Palestinian militants.

In recent months, the use of drones and airstrikes has increased in the West Bank. That's added to the general sense of insecurity, said one passerby in downtown Tulkarem, who asked not to be named. Some see it as a sign that the war in Gaza is spilling over into the West Bank.

Israel captured and occupied the West Bank in 1967. It is now home to around 3 million Palestinians and some 500,000 Israeli settlers. 

Since October 7 and the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the situation in the occupied West Bank has also deteriorated with many Israeli-imposed closures around cities and a dire economic situation as Palestinian workers are no longer allowed to cross into Israel. There has also been an increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.

More than 600 Palestinians — civilians and militants — have been killed in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah.

Ekram al Zaghal said she has rarely left her house in recent days. She came down for a moment to pick up some fruit and vegetables from a truck that makes the rounds in her neighborhood in Tulkarem.

"The army is on this side and that side," she told DW, pointing to both sides of the street.

She said she felt uncomfortable being outside with the Israeli military operating nearby and that her children were constantly frightened by the noise and tense atmosphere. "But they have to eat," she said, carrying cucumbers and nectarines inside.

She said people were exhausted and wanted to get on with their lives.

"Everyone had enough," said al Zaghal. "It's time for this to stop. It is time to make peace, somehow." 

Israel's military said it has ended its operations in the cities of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah in the southern and central Gaza Strip.

"The troops of the 98th Division have completed their divisional operation in the Khan Yunis and Deir el-Balah area, after about a month of simultaneous above and underground operational activity," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

Israel's military said its forces had killed over 250 militants in the operations and destroyed dozens of pieces of infrastructure used by militant groups.

The IDF said that the troops would be used in operations in other areas of the Gaza Strip.

Israel's Arabic-language army spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that residents were allowed to return to some neighborhoods in the south of the Gaza Strip. 

The Israeli military said it struck the West Bank city of Jenin on the third day of heavy fighting in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had "struck a terrorist cell."

On X, formerly Twitter, the IDF said it had "eliminated" Wassem Hazem, the head of Hamas in Jenin, during an operation in the northern Samaria area.

The IDF said Hazem was identified alongside a terrorist cell in a vehicle in the area.

The Israeli military accused Hazem of being "involved in carrying out and directing shooting and bombing attacks, and continuously advanced terrorist activities in the Judea and Samaria area."

The IDF said that, shortly after the killing, one of its aircraft killed two Hamas fighters who it said were fleeing a vehicle they were traveling in, alongside Hazem.

So far, at least 19 people, nearly all militants, have been killed in Israel's raids in the West Bank, according to the Associated Press, which began late Tuesday.

The Palestinians see the raids as a widening of the war in Gaza.

A top United Nations aid official has questioned "what has become of our basic humanity," as relief agencies struggle to respond to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The comments follow a halt to the movement of aid into the Palestinian territory due to Israel's latest evacuation order for the Deir al-Balah area.

"We cannot plan more than 24 hours in advance because we struggle to know what supplies we will have, when we will have them or where we will be able to deliver," Joyce Msuya, acting head of the UN's humanitarian office (OCHA) told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

"Civilians are hungry. They are thirsty. They are sick. They are homeless. They have been pushed beyond... what any human being should bear," Msuya added.

She said more than 88% of Gaza territory has at some point been given eviction notices since Israel launched its offensive against Hamas, in retaliation for the deadly attack on Israeli soil on October 7.

This had left Gaza residents "in a state of limbo," she added.

"What we have witnessed over the past 11 months... calls into question the world's commitment to the international legal order that was designed to prevent these tragedies," Msuya said.

"It forces us to ask: what has become of our basic sense of humanity?"

Israel's security Cabinet plans to maintain control over the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt under any cease-fire deal in the conflict, Israeli media reported.

The Times of Israel and Haaretz newspapers cited sources as saying a large majority of the Cabinet voted in favor of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's position during a meeting on Thursday evening.

According to these reports, only Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voted against it, while the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir abstained.

Israel claims that numerous tunnels operated by Hamas run under the approximately 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) "Philadelphi Corridor."

Netanyahu insists on maintaining control to prevent weapons smuggling into Gaza.

Egypt denies the existence of these underground routes.

In the current cease-fire negotiations, Israel's demand for permanent control of the Philadelphi Corridor is one of the main points of contention.

US Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris has said she would not change  President Joe Biden's policy on supplying Israel with arms for its war in Gaza if elected to the White House in November.

"No," the vice president said when asked during an interview with CNN if she would change course and withhold weapons to Israel, as demanded by some in her party.

She added that it was time for a cease-fire and hostage deal and to "end this war."

Harris attended a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday, which was briefly disrupted by demonstrators who were protesting Washington's involvement in the Israel-Hamas war.

Some 1.2 million vaccine doses have already been delivered to Gaza ahead of a September 1 campaign to vaccinate more than 640,000 children against polio,
a World Health Organization official said on Friday.

Some 400,000 additional doses are en route to the territory, said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative for the occupied Palestinian territories.

On Thursday, the UN health agency said Israel had agreed to at least three days of "humanitarian pauses" in parts of Gaza, starting Sunday.

The WHO planned the vaccination drive after the first case of polio in a quarter of a century was recorded in the Palestinian territory.

nm/rc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)