since start of year
\n West bank
\nThe office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas denounced an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank as \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d on Monday, with the health ministry saying Israeli forces killed 70 people in the territory this year.
\nIn a statement, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency \u201ccondemned the occupation authorities\u2019 expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing\u201d.
\nLater the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said there had been \u201c70 martyrs in the West Bank since the beginning of this year\u201d, with 10 children, one woman and two elderly people among the dead.
\nThe ministry confirmed to AFP they were \u201ckilled by the Israeli occupation\u201d.
\nThe figures showed 38 people killed in Jenin and 15 in Tubas in the north of the West Bank. One was killed in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, it added.
\nThe Israeli military launched a major offensive in the West Bank on January 21 aimed at rooting out Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area.
\n\u201cWe demand the intervention of the US administration before it is too late, to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against our people and our land,\u201d Rudeineh told the Palestinian official news agency WAFA in a statement coinciding with a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
\nOn Sunday, the army said it had killed more than 50 \u201cterrorists\u201d during the operation that began on January 21 and in air strikes the preceding week.
\nNetanyahu is visiting Washington, where he is expected to begin talks on a second phase of Israel\u2019s truce with Hamas in Gaza on Monday.
\nThe next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
since start of year West bank The office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas denounced an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank as \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d on Monday, with the health ministry saying Israeli forces killed 70 people in the territory this year. In a statement, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency \u201ccondemned the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-459420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n