Israel’s military withdraws from Jenin after 10-day operation

It added that citizens were fearful that the withdrawal may be temporary and a return by Israel’s military is planned.

While it did not confirm the pullout, the Israel Defense Forces issued a statement summarizing its operations, saying it had uncovered weapons stores and dismantled explosives in the area, killing 14 fighters and detaining 30 people carrying out four aerial strikes.

It added that the head of Hamas in Jenin, Wesam Khazem, 28, had also been killed during the operation. Hamas, in a statement last week, confirmed his death, along with two others, and witnesses posted photographs of the bombed vehicle.

Nidal Abu Saleh, the mayor of Jenin, said in an interview with The Post on Thursday before the withdrawal that the damage from Israel’s latest incursion had affected large swaths of the city’s infrastructure, including some 12 miles of roads, the main water and sewage systems and the electricity network. He estimated the cost of the destruction to be more than $13 million, but said officials had yet to tally all the damage, including in Jenin’s large refugee camp.

“We can evaluate it only after they leave,” he said, adding that the city had sustained some $26 million in damage due to previous Israeli incursions over the last 11 months. This time, the army had “destroyed the whole commercial block at the cinema roundabout which is the heart of the city’s commerce.”

The United Nations’ special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, condemned the killing of two children in the West Bank and said “the loss of so many young lives serves as a grim reminder that decisive action must be taken now to stop the violence.”

“I am appalled by the tragic killing of two children over the past two days by Israeli security forces during military operations in Jenin and Tulkarm,” Wennesland said. “I call for an immediate and thorough investigation into these incidents, underscoring the urgent need for accountability and justice to ensure the protection of all civilians.”

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused Israel of seeking to “reproduce its brutal crimes” in Gaza to the West Bank, “as seen in Jenin and Tulkarm and their refugee camps,” in a social media post Friday.

Last week, hundreds of Israeli troops launched raids in several areas of the occupied West Bank, carrying out mass arrests and engaging in gun battles in one of its largest actions in the Palestinian territory since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.

The IDF said counterterrorism operations had focused on the northern West Bank in areas including Jenin, Tulkarm and al-Fara’a refugee camp. Israel said the attacks were meant to root out militant cells and destroy their infrastructure and weapons.

Here’s what else to know

Secretary of Sate Antony Blinken said “90 percent” of a framework cease-fire deal “is agreed,” but “there are a few critical issues that remain.” Speaking to reporters during a trip to Haiti, Blinken said “active discussions” were ongoing. Some of the outstanding “gaps” he said include the future of the Philadelphi Corridor and specifics of how hostages and prisoners are to be exchanged. Blinken added, “every day that goes by where it is not finalized … runs the risk of derailing what is a pretty fragile apple cart.”

“More than 1 million people did not receive any food rations in August in southern and central Gaza through humanitarian means,” according to a United Nations update. Ongoing hostilities, damaged roads, the breakdown of law and order, and multiple evacuation orders by Israeli forces have impacted access, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary general, told reporters, resulting in critical shortages. “It bears repeating that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains beyond catastrophic and we still do not have all the conditions necessary to support people near the scale that they actually need,” he added.

At least 40,878 ​​people have been killed and 94,454 injured in Gaza since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 340 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operations in Gaza.

Hazem Balousha contributed to this report.