Israel Raids West Bank Refugee Camp, Killing 5 Palestinians, Wounding 91
The Israeli military killed five Palestinians and wounded 91 others on Monday as it deployed helicopter gunships in a raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin.
The violence marked a rare use of Israeli airpower in the Israeli-occupied territory.
The Israeli military said seven members of its paramilitary border police and the army suffered light and moderate wounds during 10 hours of fighting. The Israeli military said its troops came under fire during an arrest raid in Jenin, the latest violence in the West Bank that has lasted more than a year.
The Israeli media reported it was the first such use of a helicopter gunship in the occupied West Bank since the second Palestinian uprising about two decades ago.
Palestinian militants targeted Israeli military vehicles with a powerful roadside bomb, disabling five armored vehicles, according to an Israeli military spokesman. Israeli troops were trapped inside the mangled vehicles for hours, the spokesman said, adding that the army flooded the camp with troops and heavy vehicles in order to evacuate them.
Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official, accused Israel of waging “a fierce and open war” against the Palestinian people and said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would make “unprecedented decisions” in an upcoming emergency meeting.
Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed at least 20 people this year, while 124 Palestinians have been killed.