Casualties identified as Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members; Jenin hospital declares state of emergency due to large number of wounded in raid

Metal bars block a street in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, early on November 23, 2022. (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)
Metal bars block a street in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, early on November 23, 2022. (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)

 

Two Palestinian terror group fighters were killed in heavy clashes with Israeli troops that broke out during a pre-dawn IDF raid of the northern West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli raid was reportedly initiated in order to arrest several residents suspected of involvement in terror activity. While multiple Palestinians were said to have been apprehended, troops came under heavy fire and responded with gunshots of their own.

Palestinian media reported that as many as 20 people were wounded at varying degrees, and the hospital in Jenin declared a state of emergency, urging locals to come and donate blood.

There were no immediate reports of any wounded Israeli soldiers.

The casualties were identified as Na’im Zubeidi from the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Mohammed Ayman Saadi from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, though the various armed factions are known to work together in Jenin against the IDF.

Both of the killed gunmen were in their 20s but had already served time in Israeli jail for security offenses. Zubeidi was a relative of Zakaria Zubeidi, a notorious Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist who masterminded terror attacks during the Second Intifada and managed to briefly escape from Israeli prison last year.

In a statement early Thursday, an Islamic Jihad spokesman vowed to extract a price against Israel for the “heinous crime.”

Hundreds of Jenin residents were filmed taking part in a funeral procession for one of the killed fighters that departed from the city’s hospital.

The Jenin refugee camp has been identified as a terror hotbed by the IDF, which says it has been forced to operate widely in the town that is in Palestinian Authority-controlled Area A of the West Bank since the PA has lost control in the area. Ramallah maintains that the Israeli raids only further harm its legitimacy in the West Bank though.

The pair killed early Thursday morning were the seventh and eighth Palestinians killed in the West Bank in less than three days.

One was killed in clashes with Israeli troops in the northern West Bank town of Yabed on Wednesday afternoon. Four Palestinians were killed in clashes with the IDF throughout the West Bank on Tuesday and another Palestinian was killed after carrying out a car-ramming attack that seriously wounded a soldier that same day.

Tensions have been high in the West Bank over the past year, with the IDF launching a major anti-terror offensive mostly focused on the northern West Bank to deal with a series of Palestinian attacks that have left 31 people in Israel and the West Bank dead since the start of the year.

The operation has netted more than 2,500 arrests in near-nightly raids, but has also left more than 150 Palestinians dead, many of them — but not all — while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces.

Last month, the UN Mideast envoy said 2022 is on course to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the UN started tracking fatalities in 2005.

At the same time, there has been a steep rise in settler attacks against Palestinians and security forces.

As reported by The Times of Israel