Residents Flee West Bank Camp as Israeli Operation Extends Into Second Day

Hundreds of families fled a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin as Israel’s largest military operation in the occupied territory in more than two decades stretched into a second day with a deadly assault involving drone strikes and ground troops.

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed and around 100 wounded since the Israeli operation began early Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, in what the Israeli military has called a counterterrorism effort targeting Palestinian militants, stores of weapons and explosive devices and facilities used in launching attacks.

Overnight, Israeli forces said they had located an underground shaft in the Jenin camp that stored explosive devices. They said they also confiscated military equipment, including a grenade launcher and targeted two situation rooms used by militants.

Dozens of Palestinians have been arrested in the Israeli operation, which Israeli officials say is expected to last several days and has already caused extensive property damage and interrupted water and electricity to large parts of the camp.

Jenin deputy mayor Muhammad Jarrar said about 3,500 residents—or nearly a quarter of the camp’s population—were forced to leave by midday Tuesday, most of them women, children and the elderly. He said in an interview that nearly a third of the camp, which covers around 250 acres and abuts the city, has been destroyed.

“This is a collective punishment,” Jarrar said.

In response to the Israeli operation, other cities in the West Bank called for a general strike and demonstrations on Tuesday, potentially setting up new flashpoints for violence that has so far been mostly limited to the camp and the adjacent city of Jenin.

The Palestinian Authority called on the international community to pressure Israel to stop the assault. The Western-backed authority has struggled to control Jenin, failing to confiscate weapons and facing pressure from a variety of Iran-backed militant groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad that have developed extensive networks of support.

Tensions across the West Bank have risen since attacks last year by Palestinians and Arab Israelis that prompted Israel to step up raids into Palestinian areas to break up suspected militant cells and foil what it believed to be imminent attacks.

Since the start of 2023, more than 150 Palestinians—mostly militants but also children and elderly civilians—have been killed by Israeli forces and civilians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials. More than 20 Israelis and foreigners, nearly all civilians, have been killed by Palestinian attackers, according to a tally by The Wall Street Journal.

The sprawling Jenin camp, where Israel flattened homes with tanks and helicopters during a 2002 invasion, has re-emerged as a stronghold of Palestinian militancy in the West Bank. The Israeli military says that in the past 18 months, 50 terrorist attacks against Israelis have been launched from the camp and 19 assailants have taken refuge there.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced calls, including from his own Likud Party, for a broad military operation in the West Bank using the air force and armored corps. The current assault represents a more aggressive approach—airstrikes and drones haven’t been used in this way since 2006—while so far staying within a narrow geography.

“Our forces entered Jenin into the terrorists’ nests,” Netanyahu said Monday. “They eliminate terrorists, they arrest wanted persons, they destroy headquarters and seize many weapons.”

—Fatima AbdulKarim contributed to this article.

Write to Stephen Kalin at [email protected]