Dpa
Tel Aviv/Ramallah
Thousands gathered in Jenin on Wednesday for the funerals of nine people killed in Israel’s largest military deployment in the West Bank in 20 years.
Palestinians started gathering in the centre of the local refugee camp overnight to celebrate the withdrawal. Loud chanting, shouts such as “God is great” and shots in the air could be heard on video recordings.
In total, at least 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier died in the two-day operation Israel began early on Monday to eliminate what it said was a “terrorist infrastructure” in the city, which is located less than 80 km from Jerusalem.
The funerals were held hours after rockets were fired late Tuesday from the Gaza Strip towards Israel for the first time since May. According to the Israeli armed forces, all projectiles were intercepted. Initially, no one claimed responsibility for the attacks.
According to the Israeli military, the Palestinians killed in Jenin were militants. Some were teenagers. More than 100 Palestinians were injured.
Several command centres, weapons depots, weapons production facilities and militant hideouts were destroyed, the Israeli army said.
Jenin is considered a stronghold of militant Palestinians. The various groups are mainly financed by Iran, an arch-enemy of the state of Israel. Around 50,000 people live in the densely populated city, a third of them in a refugee camp.
On Tuesday evening, the Israeli army responded to the rockets from Gaza with air strikes on the sealed-off coastal area. It was reported that an underground weapons production facility and a Hamas rocket manufacturing plant were hit.
Several explosions were heard near Gaza, which experts presume were triggered by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system.
More than 2 million people live in very poor conditions in Gaza.
Israel officially ended its Jenin operation on Wednesday morning. All soldiers in Jenin were withdrawn and the military is now returning to its “routine activities” in the West Bank, the army said.
However, it is uncertain how long the calm in Jenin will last. “We will be back,” an army spokesman said.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear that the operation was “not a one-time event” and that Israel “will continue as long as necessary.” Many Jenin residents returned to their homes, as the Palestinian Authority began clearing debris and repairing damaged electricity and water lines in the city.
Observers were sceptical that the Jenin attack would do much to quell the cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Tamir Hayman, managing director of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said the deployment may help thwart attacks for now, but that “only political action will provide stability in the long term.”
