Israel’s biggest military operation for years in the occupied West Bank continued for a second day Tuesday, leaving at least 10 Palestinians dead and forcing thousands to flee their homes as the government said it struck “with great strength” the militant stronghold.<br /><br />The raid, launched under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government, targeted the northern city of Jenin and employed armoured vehicles, army bulldozers and drone strikes.<br /><br />On Tuesday morning, shops were shuttered in Jenin, with very few people on the streets littered with debris and burned roadblocks from the previous day’s fighting.<br /><br />Drones hummed overhead, an AFP reporter said.<br /><br />In the city’s refugee camp – an urban community that was home to 18,000 people – multiple streets were ripped up leaving broken electricity cables, oil, and pools of water apparently after an Israeli anti-bomb bulldozer passed.<br /><br />The Israeli army said its “counterterrorism activities” in Jenin had continued overnight into Tuesday, with forces acting to “neutralise” an underground shaft used to store explosives in the refugee camp.<br /><br />“Furthermore, IDF soldiers located and dismantled two operational situation rooms belonging to terrorist organisations in the area,” the army said in a Tuesday statement, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.<br /><br />Prior to this operation Israel had already stepped up raids in the northern West Bank, which has seen a recent spate of attacks on Israelis as well as Jewish settler violence targeting Palestinians.<br /><br />Israeli-Palestinian violence has worsened since last year, and escalated further under the Netanyahu coalition government that includes extreme-right allies.<br /><br />“In the last five years, this is the worst raid,” Qasem Benighader, a nurse at a hospital morgue said, noting “many” patients with bullet wounds and injuries from explosives..
