The Israeli military has intensified its operations in the occupied West Bank, with an eight-month-pregnant woman dying in the raid at the Nur Shams refugee camp.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the troops opened fire on a family within the camp, killing 23-year-old Sondos Jamal Muhammad Shalabi and critically injuring her husband. Reports say medical teams were unable to save Shalabi’s unborn child due to the military obstructing their transfer to a hospital.
According to the Palestine Wafa news agency, the Israeli army conducted an operation in the Tulkarem region in the early morning hours using heavy machinery and bulldozers to storm a number of houses while reconnaissance planes flew overhead. Witnesses said heavy gunfire and explosions were heard during the assault.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society stated that Israeli soldiers barred its medical teams from entering the camp amid reports of casualties. Israel, which had targeted “disruptive activities” in that area and declared a curfew amid flared tensions, described the operation.
Scores of similar raids have been underway in Nur Shams camp as part of an overall intensified military offensive through northern West Bank areas such as Jenin and Far’a, Tubas. Recent waves of assaults saw more than 26,000 Palestinians displaced from homes in Jenin and Tulkarem over two weeks.
Since a ceasefire was declared in Gaza last month, Israel has been escalating the frequency and intensity of military operations across the West Bank. Wafa reported an increased military presence going in the direction of Far’a camp from the Hamra checkpoint, along with ongoing destruction of infrastructure and private property.
House raids and field interrogations have continued, forcibly displacing several families, some of whom are currently taking shelter in schools. At least eight people were reportedly arrested in Far’a.
Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Amman, said the same Israeli approach in Gaza is replicated in the occupied West Bank. “The military operations here are packaged as anti-terrorism, but the long-term project of this coalition government seems to be the annexation of the West Bank,” she said. “And officials have made it clear that they intend to undermine even the concept of Palestinian freedom and to make it easier for Palestinians to leave the region.”.
