JENIN
\nPalestinians returned to the scarred streets of Jenin on Wednesday after Israel ended an unusually intense 48-hour raid, some of them preparing heroes\u2019 funerals for the dead while others set about repairing the 75-year-old refugee camp.
\nPaving had been churned up by armoured bulldozers, causing a water pipe to burst and leaving sodden gullies of rubble that residents – many of whom had holed up at home, or evacuated as a precaution – traversed with a grim and businesslike gait.
\nAfter months of spiralling skirmishes with Jenin\u2019s gunmen, Israel on Monday swamped the city\u2019s refugee camp with hundreds of commandos backed by combat drones. Commanders said the operation – dubbed \u201cHome and Garden\u201d – aimed to root out Palestinian \u2018militant\u2019 infrastructure.
\n\u201cThey did not get what they wanted, thank God. The youths are fine, the families are fine and the camp is fine,\u201d Mutasem Estatia, a father of six, told Reuters after what he described as two nights being kept away, one of them in Israeli detention.
\nTwelve Palestinian men or male teenagers were killed, five of them confirmed fighters from the Hamas or Islamic Jihad factions. Scores of Palestinians were wounded. The army – which lost a soldier in the clashes – said it killed combatants only.
\nIsraeli forces also detained around 150 suspected militants and claimed to have destroyed caches of guns and roadside mines – including an arsenal under a mosque – and a command centre, the army said.
\n\u201cThere are 12 martyrs and we are proud of them, but we expected more damage given the raid\u2019s scale,\u201d Estatia said.
\nIsrael appeared poised to return to Jenin and other areas of the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians seek statehood.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve made clear that this broad action in Jenin is not a one-off,\u201d Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Channel 14 TV on Monday. \u201cIt will be the beginning of regular incursions and continuous control of the territory and that\u2019s why there\u2019ll be no safe haven for terrorism.\u201d
\nAs the troops withdrew overnight, Israel reported a volley of rockets from the Gaza Strip, another Palestinian territory. The rockets were shot down and Israel\u2019s air force struck targets in Gaza belonging to the ruling Hamas, causing no casualties.
\nIn a further sign of violence spilling over from Jenin, a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in Tel Aviv on Monday and went on a stabbing spree, wounding eight people before he was shot dead. Hamas claimed him as a member.
\n\u201cWe say to the enemy: The time when you could practice your aggression against our people without paying the price has passed. Today, Jenin is teaching you a lesson in resistance and steadfastness,\u201d Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement.
\nThe tenement-like camp houses refugees from the 1948 war of Israel\u2019s founding. Poverty, frustrated peace diplomacy and political drift have stoked support for resistance groups like Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which preach Israel\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JENIN Palestinians returned to the scarred streets of Jenin on Wednesday after Israel ended an unusually intense 48-hour raid, some of them preparing heroes\u2019 funerals for the dead while others set about repairing the 75-year-old refugee camp. Paving had been churned up by armoured bulldozers, causing a water pipe to burst and leaving sodden gullies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-341587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n