Israel ‘on offensive’ after attacks as two women are killed in West Bank
- Fresh raids came after a gunman from Jenin went on a shooting rampage in Tel Aviv on Thursday, killing three Israelis and wounding more than a dozen others
- ‘The State of Israel has gone on the offensive,’ Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, vowing to ‘settle accounts with everyone who was linked … to the attacks’
Israeli forces carried out fresh raids on Sunday in the flashpoint West Bank district of Jenin, the home of gunmen who launched two recent deadly attacks, while two Palestinians were killed elsewhere in the occupied territory.
As Israel was laying to rest three of its recent shooting victims, gun battles rocked the Jenin area for a second day, with at least 10 Palestinians wounded in clashes with the army, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
“The State of Israel has gone on the offensive,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said after a cabinet meeting, vowing to “settle accounts with everyone who was linked, either directly or indirectly, to the attacks”.
Israeli troops detained 20 Palestinians in and around Jenin, a bastion of Palestinian militant groups, a military source said.
The operation came after a gunman from Jenin went on a shooting rampage in a Tel Aviv nightlife area on Thursday, killing three Israelis and wounding more than a dozen others – the latest in a spate of bloody attacks in the Jewish state.
Militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad welcomed the Tel Aviv attack, which was condemned by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
“This is a difficult day,” Bennett said, “the day on which the three people who were murdered in the Tel Aviv terrorist attack are brought to rest.”