Palestinians accuse Israel of 'ethnic cleansing' in West Bank and seek US intervention
The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned an Israeli military operation in the West Bank on Monday, calling it "ethnic cleansing."
The PA health ministry reported that Israeli forces had killed 70 people in the region this year, News.Az reports citing The Times of Israel.
It came a day after the Israel Defense Forces said that it has killed over 50 Palestinian terror operatives in the northern West Bank since launching a major counterterrorism offensive nearly two weeks ago.
In a statement, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing.”
Later, the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said there had been “70 martyrs in the West Bank since the beginning of this year,” with 10 children, one woman and two elderly people among the dead.
The ministry told AFP that they were “killed by the Israeli occupation.”
The figures showed 38 people killed in Jenin and 15 in Tubas in the north of the West Bank. One was killed in East Jerusalem, it said.
The IDF launched a major offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, in the West Bank on January 21 aimed at rooting out Palestinian terror groups from the Jenin area, which has long been a hotbed of terrorism.
On Sunday it said so far over 35 gunmen were killed by troops during operations in Jenin, Tulkarem, and the Tamun area, while another 15 were killed in drone strikes.
More than 100 wanted Palestinians have been detained, and troops have seized some 40 weapons and neutralized over 80 explosive devices during the operation, according to the IDF.
“We demand the intervention of the US administration before it is too late, to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against our people and our land,” Rudeineh told the Palestinian official news agency WAFA in a statement coinciding with a visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
During his visit, on Monday, Netanyahu was expected to begin talks on the second phase of the truce with Hamas in Gaza.
The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, and include discussions on a more permanent end to the war, which was started by Hamas on October 7, 2023, when it led thousands of terrorists in an invasion of southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251.
Since October 7, 2023, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.
During the same period, 46 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
Throughout the war in Gaza, the IDF has carried out more than 100 airstrikes in the West Bank, using drones, attack helicopters, and fighter jets.
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