Aysar Alais
24 January 2025•Update: 24 January 2025
RAMALLAH, Palestine
Jenin Deputy Governor Mansour al-Saadi warned Thursday of an Israeli military plan to carry out a large-scale invasion of the Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank, likening the potential operation to the Israeli genocide conducted in northern Gaza.
Speaking to Anadolu, al-Saadi said Israeli forces "closed the four entrances to the city of Jenin and its refugee camp with earth mounds, preventing entry and exit."
He cautioned against "an Israeli plan to launch a major invasion of the camp's center amid ongoing demolitions of buildings and homes surrounding it."
Al-Saadi likened the anticipated offensive in the camp to "a repetition of what happened in northern Gaza -- a systematic genocide campaign" that began on Oct. 5, 2024 and continued until the ceasefire in Gaza on Jan. 19 of this year.
He also highlighted the difficult conditions faced by patients and medical staff at Jenin Governmental Hospital due to power outages and a lack of fuel caused by the Israeli aggression.
Al-Saadi also noted the absence of an accurate count of displaced people in recent days.
He pointed out that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) documented the displacement of around 2,000 families from the Jenin refugee camp since mid-December, coinciding with a security campaign carried out by Palestinian security forces in the camp at the time.
The Israeli army continued for the third day in a row a deadly military offensive in the Jenin refugee camp, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 40.
Israeli media said the Jenin assault is part of a political maneuver by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appease far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who opposed the recent Gaza ceasefire. Reports suggest that Netanyahu promised the attack to prevent Smotrich from resigning, which might lead to the collapse of the government.
Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank due to Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, where nearly 47,300 people have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 111,400 injured since Oct. 7, 2023.
At least 873 Palestinians have since been killed and over 6,700 injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
A ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement took effect in Gaza on Jan. 19, suspending the Israeli war on the Palestinian enclave.
In July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala
