JENIN/ JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

The Israeli army escalated its ongoing offensive in the northern West Bank on Thursday, using helicopters in attacks in Tubas and Jenin cities, according to witnesses.

Israeli forces surrounded a house in the Abu Dhahir neighborhood of Jenin and arrested at least one person after storming the building, witnesses told Anadolu.

Large numbers of infantry units and special forces were also deployed around the area, with a military helicopter hovering overhead to support the troops, they added.

Helicopters fired shots during their flight over Jenin, targeting locations, witnesses said.

In Tubas, Israeli helicopters flew at low altitude over the town of Tammoun, and opened fire toward open areas and launched extensive home raids and field searches.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said that its medics treated two children who were shot by Israeli forces in the thigh in the Jenin camp. Another Palestinian was injured by Israeli fire in Idhna, near Hebron.

Israeli forces have arrested 119 Palestinians since the start of the offensive in Tubas since Wednesday, with over 50 people released later, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and the Red Cross. At least 25 people were injured in the assault.

Alongside the two-year war in Gaza, where nearly 70,000 people have been killed, assaults by the army and illegal settlers in the West Bank have killed at least 1,083 Palestinians and injured about 11,000, while more than 20,500 have been detained, according to official Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.