Military vehicles of Israeli army are seen on the streets as they raid Tulkarm Camp in West Bank on August 3. Photo / Getty Images
Military vehicles of Israeli army are seen on the streets as they raid Tulkarm Camp in West Bank on August 3. Photo / Getty Images
Palestinian officials say Israel is carrying out raids across the occupied West Bank.
At least nine people have been killed in a major Israeli offensive in Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health authorities say.
The Israeli military said it was preparing a statement, having earlier released the names of the five Palestinian fighters it killed on Monday in the West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp.
Israeli security forces began a large scale counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank early on Wednesday involving drones and helicopter gunships, the Israel Defence Forces said.
The operation was carried out in Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarm.
Clashes in the West Bank have risen sharply since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Israel has stepped up operations against armed militant groups in the territory, while Jewish settlers have also launched frequent vigilante-style attacks on Palestinian communities.
The armed wings of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah said in separate statements their gunmen were detonating bombs against Israeli military vehicles as they fight Israeli forces in the three West Bank areas.
Islamic Jihad said Israel was trying to expand the conflict from Gaza to the West Bank, adding its fighters were using machine guns in close range combat with Israeli troops and targeting military bulldozers with explosives.
Reuters was able to verify CCTV footage that showed Israeli military vehicles moving down a street in Jenin on Wednesday.
Streets with destructed buildings are seen after Israeli attacks in Tulkarm, West Bank on August 3. Photo / Getty Images
Earlier Israeli special forces recovered an Israeli hostage from a tunnel in southern Gaza in “a complex rescue operation”, more than 10 months after he was abducted by Hamas-led gunmen.
The military said 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel who worked as a security guard on a kibbutz near the Gaza border, had been transferred to hospital and his condition was stable.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Alkadi had been rescued in an underground tunnel but gave no details of the operation, citing the security of the remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip and Israeli forces.
A military official told Reuters soldiers were operating in the area where Alkadi was found, navigating a complex underground system where hostages were suspected to be held alongside militants and explosives.
“Farhan was found by the troops when he was alone, and was rescued from the tunnel,” the official said.
“As part of the preparations for the operation, lessons were learned from previous events and encounters with hostages.”
Israeli media quoted Alkadi as saying he had not seen the sun for almost eight months, and that another hostage who was with him for two months had “died next to me”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he had spoken with Alkadi, commended the troops for the rescue and said Israel would work “tirelessly” for the return of all the hostages.
The operation was hailed by Israeli leaders, desperate for good news almost a year into a grinding military campaign against Hamas during which pressure has mounted on the government to do more to bring over 100 hostages back home.
President Isaac Herzog said the rescue was “a moment of joy for the State of Israel and Israeli society as a whole”.
Israel’s Hostage Families Forum called Alkadi’s return “nothing short of miraculous” but that military operations alone will not free the remaining hostages “who have suffered 326 days of abuse and terror.
Alkadi was taken hostage in Kibbutz Magen, one of a string of Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip stormed by Hamas-led fighters in a cross-border incursion on October 7.
Today, the IDF and ISA rescued the hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi, aged 52, from Rahat, who was abducted by the Hamas terrorist organization into Gaza on October 7.
He is in a stable medical condition and is being transferred for medical checks at a hospital. His family has been… pic.twitter.com/lGBKa3aaaO
More than 250 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in the attack, in which some 1200 people were killed.
Alkadi’s rescue leaves 108 Israeli and foreign hostages still in Gaza but around a third of these are known to have died, with the fate of the others unknown.
There has been little progress reported from talks to agree a halt to the war in Gaza and the return of the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
