Israel-Palestine latest: Israeli forces withdraws from Jenin after deadly raid that killed 13

Some of the scenes from Jenin, including massive army bulldozers tearing through camp alleys, were eerily similar to those from the major Israeli incursion in 2002 which lasted for eight days and became known as the battle of Jenin.

Both operations, two decades apart, were meant to crush militant groups in the camp and deter and prevent attacks on Israelis. In each case, the army claimed success.

However, the continued cycle of army raids and Palestinian attacks raised new questions about Israel's tactics. This week's raid had wide support across Israel's political spectrum, but some critics in Israel argued its impact is short-lived, with the slain gunmen quickly replaced by others.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose government administers parts of the West Bank, has rejected violence against Israelis, but has effectively lost control over several strongholds of gunmen.

Many Palestinians see the actions of the gunmen as an inevitable result of 56 years of occupation and the absence of any political process with Israel. They also point to increased West Bank settlement construction and violence by extremist settlers.

Palestinians returned to the scarred streets of Jenin on Wednesday after Israel ended an unusually intense 48-hour raid, some of them preparing heroes' funerals for the dead while others set about repairing the 75-year-old refugee camp.

Paving had been churned up by armoured bulldozers, causing a water pipe to burst and leaving sodden gullies of rubble that residents - many of whom had holed up at home, or evacuated as a precaution - traversed with a grim and businesslike gait.

After months of spiralling skirmishes with Jenin's gunmen, Israel on Monday swamped the city's refugee camp with hundreds of commandos backed by combat drones. Commanders said the operation - dubbed "Home and Garden" - aimed to root out Palestinian militant infrastructure.

"They did not get what they wanted, thank God. The youths are fine, the families are fine and the camp is fine," Mutasem Estatia, a father of six, told Reuters after what he described as two nights being kept away, one of them in Israeli detention.

Twelve Palestinian men or male teenagers were killed, five of them confirmed fighters from the Hamas or Islamic Jihad factions. Scores of Palestinians were wounded. The army - which lost a soldier in the clashes - said it killed combatants only.

Israeli forces also detained around 150 suspected militants and destroyed caches of guns and roadside mines - including an arsenal under a mosque - and a command centre, the army said.

"There are 12 martyrs and we are proud of them, but we expected more damage given the raid's scale," Estatia said.

Israel appeared poised to return to Jenin and other areas of the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians seek statehood.

"I've made clear that this broad action in Jenin is not a one-off," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Channel 14 TV on Monday. "It will be the beginning of regular incursions and continuous control of the territory and that's why there'll be no safe haven for terrorism."

At least 13 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in the operation in the Jenin refugee camp, security officials said.

Israeli troops have withdrawn from a militant stronghold in the West Bank after a two-day raid, the military has confirmed.

The army claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on militant groups in an operation that included a series of airstrikes and hundreds of ground troops.

They also said five rockets launched by militants in the Gaza Strip into Israel had been intercepted as tensions remained high.

Hamas said an earlier attack by a Hamas militant who rammed his car into a crowded Tel Aviv bus stop and began stabbing people, wounding eight, including a pregnant woman was revenge for the Israeli offensive. The attacker was killed by an armed bystander.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to carry out similar offensives in the future.

He said: "At these moments we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off. We will eradicate terrorism wherever we see it and we will strike at it."

Watch a live view from inside Jenin refugee camp on Wednesday, 5 July, after Israeli forces withdrew following one of their biggest military operations in the occupied West Bank for years.

At least 12 Palestinians, at least five of them fighters, and one Israeli soldier had been killed in the operation which the army said was intended to destroy militant infrastructure and weapons in the densely-populated camp which houses around 14,000 people in less than half a square kilometre.

The operation began on Monday with a drone strike and the deployment of over 1,000 troops.

Holly Patrick reports:

The Israeli military launched one of its largest operations in the occupied West Bank for two decades on Monday, carrying out drone strikes and sending in hundreds of troops and armoured bulldozers to hit what it claims are “terrorist infrastructure targets and armed gunmen in the Jenin camp”.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the area had become “a safe haven for terrorists” and declared: “We are putting an end to this”.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said its soldiers had found “explosive devices, weapons and military equipment” in a mosque at the camp, alleging that 50 per cent of the local population is affiliated with Palestinian militant organisations like the Jenin Brigades.

Joe Sommerlad has more.

UN agencies expressed their alarm on Tuesday after it emerged that at least three children were among those killed by Israeli forces during their raids in the Jenin refugee camp of the occupied West Bank.

Israel on Monday launched one of its biggest operations in the refugee camp in 20 years, carrying out a series of drone strikes and sending in bulldozers and hundreds of troops who engaged in extensive gun battles, forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee the camps through alleyways.

In the West Bank, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office said they are “alarmed at the scale of air and ground operations that are taking place in Jenin... and airstrikes hitting a densely populated refugee camp”.

More here.

The Israeli military withdrew its troops from a militant stronghold on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, ending an intense two-day operation that killed at least 12 Palestinians and drove thousands of people from their homes.

Witnesses reported seeing convoys of military vehicles leaving the Jenin refugee camp following one of its most extensive operations in two decades.

During the raid, the army said it had uncovered militant hideouts, arms depots and an underground shaft used to store explosives.

The army said it has dismantled six explosives manufacturing facilities and three operational situation rooms in Jenin.

“The weapons were located in hideouts, a mosque, pits concealed in civilian areas, operational situation rooms, and in vehicles,” it said.

Hamas said that “all options for supporting Jenin and its heroes were on the table” during the operation as the Israeli forces began to leave the refugee camp in occupied West Bank.

“We have sent clear messages to the enemy through all parties that the resistance in all arenas is not far from what is happening, and the enemy must stop its aggression immediately,” said Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau.

“We say to the enemy that the time has passed when you practice your aggression against our people without paying the price, and Jenin is today teaching you a lesson in resistance and steadfastness.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had evacuated 500 families from the camp, around 3,000 people.

Jihad Hassan, 63, who fled the camp after his son was wounded, said a drone strike had prompted him to leave.“You don’t hear a sound, you just see the explosion,” he said, as he waited with his son at the Jenin Government Hospital.

“It is something, when a person is forced to leave their home.”Around 100 people have been injured, the Palestinian health ministry said, 20 of them seriously.