Hundreds of people are leaving the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank today on the orders of Israeli authorities as part of a major military operation that began Tuesday, the city's governor said.
"Hundreds of camp residents began leaving after the Israeli army, through megaphones attached to drones and military vehicles, ordered them to leave," said Governor Kamal Abu al-Roub.
The Israeli army has denied forcing people to leave their homes in Jenin, saying it is simply allowing civilians who want to leave for security reasons to leave the city.
"There is no evacuation order. We are not forcing anyone to leave their homes," military spokesman Nadav Shoshani told a news conference today.
The new Israeli offensive, announced on Tuesday by the army and called 'Iron Wall', has already caused the death of at least 10 Palestinians.
According to Shoshani, one of the main objectives of the strike is to destroy improvised explosive devices that Palestinian militants - linked to Islamist groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad - use to ambush Israeli military vehicles across the occupied West Bank.
The spokesman added that this is the reason why Israeli forces have been forcing patients at Jenin Government Hospital to remain in the building while soldiers defuse explosives located near the facility.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, there are around 600 people trapped in that hospital.
A paramedic from the Palestine Red Crescent confirmed that he is unable to access the city because Israeli forces are blocking the passage of ambulances.
Explosions and gunshots can be heard occasionally in the city and only a few young people walk through the deserted streets.
On Wednesday, Hamas accused Palestinian Authority security forces of participating in the Jenin operation, calling it a "crime against the people and a denial of the blood of the martyrs."
The group therefore called on all Palestinian factions to "unite with full force to end the dangerous violations committed by the Palestinian Authority" and indicated that its fighters in Jenin "are facing the aggression of the occupation and escalating the clashes in other parts of the West Bank," as reported by the Palestinian daily Filastin.
Islamic Jihad also criticized the Palestinian Authority, arguing that such actions "only benefit the Israeli occupation."
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stressed that the Jenin operation "will represent a turning point in the security strategy" of Israeli forces in the West Bank, stressing that it is "a strong operation to eliminate terrorists and terrorist infrastructure."
The Jenin refugee camp has been the scene of clashes in recent weeks between Palestinian Authority security forces and Palestinian militias, including the armed wing of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, incidents that have resulted in around a dozen deaths.
Furthermore, Jenin and its refugee camp have been the epicenter of Israel's military operations for months as part of its strategy to intensify operations in the West Bank in the wake of Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israeli territory, which resulted in around 1,200 deaths, mostly civilians, and 251 people kidnapped.
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