Israel’s military said Wednesday it carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire, targeting a weapons production site used by suspected Hamas militants.
The Israeli military said earlier it shot down all five rockets fired toward Israeli territory.
Israeli troops withdrew late Tuesday from a refugee camp in the West Bank after conducting what it said were raids in search of members of armed Palestinian groups and weapons.
The U.N. Security Council is set to hold a closed-door meeting on the situation Friday, per a request from the United Arab Emirates.
The two-day operation included more than 1,000 Israeli soldiers and killed at least 12 Palestinians. Hamas said one of its members was killed, while Islamic Jihad said four of its members were among the dead. Israel said one Israeli soldier was killed.
Explosions and gunfire could be heard near the Jenin hospital as the Israelis left and residents who had fled the fighting began to return.
"At these moments we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive operation in Jenin is not a one-off," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a nearby military checkpoint.
The Israeli military said it had detained 120 suspected gunmen and seized weapons caches and explosives in Jenin.
Violence condemned
The Palestinians, neighboring Jordan and Egypt and the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemned the violence.
Palestinian presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, "Our Palestinian people will not kneel, will not surrender, will not raise the white flag, and will remain steadfast on their land in the face of this brutal aggression."
Also Tuesday, Israeli authorities said eight Israelis were wounded in a car ramming and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv, raising fears of more violence in response to the Israeli military assault on the camp in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
The Jenin attack came as Israel's right-wing government, installed last December, faced growing pressure for its tough response to a string of attacks on Israelis in the region, one of which killed four people last month. Jenin has been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence since the spring of 2022.
UN mobilizes aid
Lynn Hastings, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian areas, said on Twitter that she was "alarmed by scale of Israeli forces operation." She said the United Nations was mobilizing humanitarian aid.
Last week, the U.N. Security Council urged restraint and called on Israelis and Palestinians to "refrain from unilateral actions that further inflame tensions."
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
