Hundreds of families leave the West Bank as a major Israeli raid continues

Witnesses said hundreds of Jenin residents left their homes in the West Bank city on Thursday, prompted by messages from drones equipped with loudspeakers.

The operation, involving large columns of vehicles supported by helicopters and drones, was launched in the first week of the Gaza ceasefire and saw the first exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons since a brief truce in November 2023.

Israeli officials said the Jenin operation was aimed at what the military said were Iranian-backed militant groups in the refugee camp adjacent to the city, a major hub for Palestinian militant groups for years.

“We need to be prepared to continue with the genin camp which will bring him to a different place,” LT-GEN. Herzi Halevy, head of the Israeli army, said in a statement.

Armored bulldozers have dug into the roads, making movement in the city difficult, but hundreds of people have left their homes in the camp, dragging their suitcases or carrying plastic bags of their belongings after they said they heard messages to evacuate.

“Yesterday, we didn’t want to leave, we were at home,” said 16-year-old Hotsam Al-Saadi. “Today, they sent a drone to our area, telling us to leave the camp and that they would blow it up.”

The Israeli army denied that it had asked residents to leave their homes. It said it would “enable any resident who chooses to leave the area to do so via safe and organized routes with the protection of Israeli security forces.”

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As the operation continues, the sound of gunfire and the constant buzz of drones flying overhead can be heard in the refugee camp. In the city, there was a little movement in the streets.

Footage released by the Israeli military showed forces detonating what appeared to be explosives on the side of the road.

Overnight on Wednesday, Israeli forces killed two armed men trapped inside a building in Batrat, outside Jenin, after a gunbattle. The two were suspected of carrying out an attack near the Palestinian village of Al-Fandan earlier this month, in which three Israelis were killed.

Both are claimed by Hamas’s armed wing, which has a strong presence in the refugee camp, a crowded town of descendants of Palestinians who fled, or were forced, from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war.

Overall, since the beginning of the operation, 12 Palestinians have been killed and 40 others have been injured.

The raid, the third major operation by the IDF in Jenin in less than two years, prompted warnings from France and Jordan against an escalation in the Israeli West Bank, which has seen an increase in violence since the start of the war in Gaza.