Seven Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during raid on Jenin – health officials
The Palestinian health ministry, based in Ramallah, said the Israeli military’s raid on the West Bank city of Jenin has killed at least seven people (up from six). Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed earlier that the military operation in Jenin, seen as a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups, aims to “eradicate terrorism” in the area.
He described the operation conducted by police and the Shin Bet security service as “extensive and significant”.
Jenin has been a focus of Israeli raids into the occupied West Bank throughout Israel’s 15 month war on Gaza. The Palestinian health ministry says more than 800 people have been killed in Israeli raids since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
The Jenin refugee camp is home to about 14,000 people, most of whom are descendants of the Palestinian people dispossessed of their land when Israel was created in 1948.
Key events
Summary of the day so far
-
At least eight people have been killed and more than 30 wounded in an Israeli raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
-
Israel’s top general, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, has resigned city the security failures linked to the 7 October attack. The IDF’s head of southern operations, Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman, also said he would be stepping down.
-
US President Donald Trump has reversed the Biden administration’s sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in a concession to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
-
Hamas have confirmed that four female Israeli hostages will be freed on Saturday in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners. the second such move under the ceasefire deal.
-
Displaced Palestinians continued to return to their homes in Gaza, across a territory that lies in ruins. The search for bodies buried under the rubble has started with Gaza’s civil defence agency saying its workers dug up 66 bodies in Gaza yesterday.
Qatar’s Prime Minister has said he hopes the Palestinian Authority would return to play a governing role in Gaza once the war with Israel comes to an end.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland, two days after the Gaza ceasefire he helped broker came into effect, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani cautioned that only Gazans should dictate how the territory will be governed.
Reuters reported, he said: “We hope to see the PA back in Gaza. We hope to see a government that will really address the issues of the people over there. And there is a long way to go with Gaza and the destruction,” he said.
How Gaza will be governed after the war was not directly addressed in the ceasefire.
Israel has rejected any governing role for Hamas, but it has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.
Target Houthis while Iran weakened, urges UN-backed Yemeni leader
Patrick Wintour
The west should seize the opportunity to target the Tehran-backed Houthi leadership in Yemen while the Iranian government is weakened, the vice-president of the UN-backed government in Aden has said.
Aidarus al-Zoubaidi said that Iran’s reverses in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza had left the country “massively weakened”. “They have one remaining domain and that is Yemen,” Zoubaidi told the Guardian. “Now is the time to counter the Houthis and push them back into their position.”
He said Yemen ground forces should work in cooperation with western airstrikes as part of a multi-pronged strategy.
Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, he also called on the new US administration to designate the Houthis a foreign terrorist organisation, and praised Donald Trump for showing “decisive leadership”.
His remarks suggest that the Presidential Leadership Council, based in the Yemeni city Aden, regards the weakening of Iran and the return of Trump as an opportunity to launch a joint military offensive against the Houthis, including the potential use of ground forces.
Read the full story here
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called on has called on Netanyahu and his government to resign after military chief Lt Gen Herzi Halevi quit over the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Lapid said he saluted Halevi for stepping down and added:
Now, it is time for them to take responsibility and resign – the prime minister and his entire catastrophic government.
The resignations of Lt Gen Herzi Halevi and Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman (see earlier post) will likely add to calls for a public inquiry into the failures of 7 Ocotber, reports Associated Press.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whose leadership could be implicated — has said any such move must wait until the war is over.
Halevi had appeared to be at odds with Israel’s new defense minister, Israel Katz, over the direction of the war, saying Israel had accomplished most of its goals while Katz echoed Netanyahu’s vow to keep fighting until “total victory” over Hamas.
Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Jenin – a city in the occupied West Bank Israeli forces reportedly moved into earlier today following several drone strikes:
The Palestinian health ministry has raised the death toll from the Israeli military’s raid on Jenin to eight, from seven.
Lorenzo Tondo
Lorenzo Tondo is a Guardian correspondent currently reporting from Jerusalem
The Israeli government has accused Iran, which backs militant groups across the Middle East including Hamas in Gaza, of attempting to send weapons and money to militants in the West Bank.
Israeli settlers have set vehicles and properties on fire in the Palestinian villages where dozens of Palestinian prisoners released on Sunday exchange for three Israeli hostages handed over by Hamas to Israel were are returning. More than 21 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank have been inured as a result of the Israeli settlers’ attacks.
Jalal Bashir, the head of Jinasfut village council, was quoted as saying by Wafa news agency on Monday evening that the attacks took place in the villages of Jinasfut and Funduq, east of Qalqilya.
The Palestinian Authority has accused Trump of inciting Israeli settler violence after he on Monday rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals for allegedly committing violence against Palestinians.
The White House said Trump had rescinded an executive order issued on 1 February 2024, which authorised the imposition of certain sanctions “on persons undermining peace, security, and stability in the West Bank”.
You can read the full story – about the operation in Jenin and situation in the occupied West Bank more generally – here:
Seven Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during raid on Jenin – health officials
The Palestinian health ministry, based in Ramallah, said the Israeli military’s raid on the West Bank city of Jenin has killed at least seven people (up from six). Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed earlier that the military operation in Jenin, seen as a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups, aims to “eradicate terrorism” in the area.
He described the operation conducted by police and the Shin Bet security service as “extensive and significant”.
Jenin has been a focus of Israeli raids into the occupied West Bank throughout Israel’s 15 month war on Gaza. The Palestinian health ministry says more than 800 people have been killed in Israeli raids since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
The Jenin refugee camp is home to about 14,000 people, most of whom are descendants of the Palestinian people dispossessed of their land when Israel was created in 1948.
Hebrew media outlet Ynet is carrying the resignation statement from the commander of the IDF’s southern command, Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman who is standing down, along with IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi who resigned earlier.
Finkelman said:
On 7 October, I failed to defend the western Negev and its beloved and heroic residents. This failure is etched in my memory for the rest of my life
Out of responsibility to the State of Israel … the IDF and its people, I have since acted to lead the war on Hamas and the terrorist organizations in Gaza.
We must continue to strike the enemy, return all our hostages to their homes and the communities to their rightful place of security and prosperity.
Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting, citing the director of Khalil Suleiman hospital in Jenin, Wissam Bakr, that three nurses and two doctors have been injured by Israeli fire during Israel’s military operation inside the Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Al Jazeera reports that the death toll in Jenin has risen to seven, and that about 35 others have been wounded.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Israel’s Army Radio reports that the commander of the IDF’s southern command, Maj Gen Yaron Finkelman is also resigning.
More details soon …
Israel’s chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi to resign over 7 October attack ‘failure of the IDF’
The IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi has informed defense minister Israel Katz that he will resign on 6 March, saying in a statement that he is leaving the military after “recognizing my responsibility for the failure of the IDF on 7 October”
Israeli media reports in his statement he says he will “transfer command of the IDF in a high-quality and thorough manner to my replacement” and will spend the time up until his resignation overseeing investigations into the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack.
He is quoted as saying he leaves “at the point in time in which the IDF has recorded significant achievements, and is in the process of implementing an agreement to release hostages.”
More details soon …