18 January 2018•Update: 18 January 2018
RAMALLAH, Palestine
Israeli army forces early Thursday stormed the West Bank city of Jenin where they killed a Palestinian and demolished three homes, according to local officials and eyewitness accounts.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the martyrdom of Ahmed Ismail Muhammad Jarrar, 31, who was reportedly shot by Israeli forces in his family home. The ministry had earlier misidentified the slain Palestinian as 22-year-old Ahmed Nasr Jarrar.
According to eyewitnesses, the Israeli army completely razed Jarrar’s home early Thursday while partially demolishing two other nearby residences.
Israeli police said in a statement released late Wednesday that an armed clash had erupted in Jenin between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen.
Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth claimed Jarrar was responsible for the death of an Israeli settler killed last week near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Mansour al-Saadi, Jenin's deputy governor, told Anadolu Agency that as of 9.30 a.m. (0730 GMT), Israeli forces had yet to depart from the city and that multiple clashes were still underway.
"At least one home was demolished and one Palestinian killed, but the situation remains unclear,” al-Saadi said, going on to note that the army was preventing medical personnel and journalists from reaching the scene.
Local witnesses, however, later said that the army had begun to withdraw from the area following a 10-hour operation.
According to the deputy governor, the incursion -- which he said had featured helicopters, drones and military vehicles -- was the largest to be seen “in several years”.
