Israeli troops kill 10 in West Bank violence
JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians and wounded several others in a largescale raid Thursday in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said. The deadliest single operation in the territory in two decades prompted Palestinian leaders to cut security ties with Israel, a move that could lead to more violence.
The Israeli military also fatally shot a 22-year-old Palestinian later in a separate incident.
The raid in the Jenin refugee camp increases the risk of a major flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian fighting, poses a test for Israel's new hard-line government and casts a shadow on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's expected trip to the region next week.
Raising the stakes, the Palestinian Authority said it would halt the ties that its security forces maintain with Israel in a shared effort to contain Islamic militants. Previous such efforts have been short-lived, in part because of the benefits the authority enjoys from the relationship and also due to U.S. and Israeli pressure to maintain it.
The PA already has limited control over scattered enclaves in the West Bank, and its forces have little authority in militant strongholds like the Jenin camp. But the announcement could pave the way for Israel to step up operations it says are needed to prevent attacks.
Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza, threatened revenge for the raid. Violent escalations in the West Bank have previously triggered retaliatory rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces in the West Bank and on the country's border with Gaza went on heightened alert. Protesters filled the streets in the territory, chanting in solidarity with Jenin. Palestinians in the refugee camp dug a mass grave for the dead and Abbas declared three days of mourning.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, said Abbas had decided to cut security coordination in "light of the repeated aggression against our people, and the undermining of signed agreements," referring to commitments from the Oslo peace process in the 1990s. He also said that the Palestinians planned to file complaints with the U.N. Security Council, International Criminal Court and other international bodies.
The PA last cut security coordination with Israel in 2020, over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's drive to annex the occupied West Bank, which would render a future Palestinian state unviable. But six months later, the PA resumed cooperation, signaling the financial importance of the relationship and the Palestinians' relief at the election of President Joe Biden.
Barbara Leaf, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, said the administration was deeply concerned about the situation and said civilian casualties reported in Jenin were "quite regrettable." But she also said the Palestinian announcement to suspend security cooperation with Israel was a mistake.
"Obviously, we don't think this is the right step to take at this moment," she told reporters, saying the Palestinian vow to bring the matter to the U.N. and the International Criminal Court was problematic.
"We want to see them move back in the other direction," she said, adding: "They need to engage with each other."
Thursday's gunbattle erupted when Israel's military conducted a rare daytime operation in the refugee camp that it said was meant to prevent an imminent attack on Israelis. The camp, where the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group has a major foothold, has been a focus of near-nightly Israeli arrest raids.
At least one of the dead was identified by Palestinians as a militant; it was not clear how many others were affiliated with armed groups.
Later in the day, Israeli forces fatally shot a 22-year-old, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as Palestinians confronted Israeli troops north of Jerusalem to protest Thursday's raid.
Tensions have soared since Israel stepped up raids in the West Bank last spring, following a series of Palestinian attacks.
Israel's new national security minister, far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who seeks to grant legal immunity to Israeli soldiers who shoot Palestinians, posted a video of himself beaming triumphantly. He congratulated security forces, saying the government gives "backing to our fighters in the war against the terrorists."