Israel stages large-scale raid in West Bank militant stronghold with drones, hundreds of troops
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Transcript
00:00 Overnight there was Israeli airstrikes. They are still rare within the West Bank. So we saw
00:05 Israeli airstrikes against what Israel calls a unified command and control center inside Jenin.
00:13 That's a place where militant groups, a number of militant groups, gather to plan attacks against
00:19 Israeli targets, says the Israeli military. And after that, after some time, it entered,
00:26 its troops entered on foot into the refugee camp. We are also hearing that Israel has stationed
00:34 bulldozers outside the town of Jenin. And for Palestinians with long memories, that's very
00:40 worrying because in 2002, there was a big battle there, Jenin Grad in the end, based on Stalingrad,
00:47 the Palestinians called it. But what it saw was many, was that Israeli bulldozers destroyed a
00:54 large section of this particular refugee camp. So I think we are at the beginning of what Israel
01:00 is saying will be a number of days, not just one day in and out, as we have seen in the past.
01:05 And it is something that I think was not entirely expected as to this timing tonight.
01:13 There were an increase in Israeli attacks within this camp. You saw an increase of Palestinian
01:18 attacks against Israeli targets. And you saw those Israeli attacks, which some in the Israeli
01:23 military called pogroms, when Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages, unrelated to the
01:30 incidents that had occurred before. So we've seen all of that. But I did, but after the first
01:35 Israeli airstrike about a week ago, Palestinian militants from Jenin came out and they fired
01:42 rockets into Israel. The rockets didn't land, they didn't reach their targets. But this is a Gaza
01:48 tactic. And I remember thinking at the time that Israel would not be able to put up with this,
01:52 with attacks coming, with rocket attacks on its main population centres, from the south,
01:58 from Gaza and from the West Bank as well. So in one sense, I guess this was brewing.