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00:00And for more on this story, I'm joined here in the studio by France 24 International Affairs
00:03editor, Ketavan Gordjastani.
00:05Ketavan, what's the latest that we know about this major operation?
00:08Well, it seems that this operation is slowly expanding.
00:13You said it's we're in day two of this operation and all signs from the reporting on the ground
00:20is that the Israeli military seems to be settling in for more of these types of operations.
00:26Right now, it's more focused on the northern part of the West Bank, around cities like
00:33Jenin, Tobas or Tulkarm.
00:35And as you said, there was that announcement by the Israeli forces that they had killed
00:41at least five militants.
00:43There was confirmation by one of these militant groups, the Islamic Jihad, that one of those
00:50killed was indeed one of their top commanders, Muhammad Jaber, also known as Abu Shuja.
00:58So that's for what happened in those latest operations.
01:03But the thinking behind this operation, at least from the Israeli side and their explanation
01:09as to why they're doing this, is that their operations are meant to root out militants
01:16from these locations because they believe that these cities like Jenin, like Tulkarm,
01:22have become militant strongholds and they believe that this is where these militants
01:28organized to carry out attacks against Israelis.
01:33So that is the argument on the Israeli side.
01:37And this was sort of put into one specific statement by the foreign minister of Israel,
01:45Katz, who talked about the Islamic Iranian terror infrastructure.
01:52So those holdouts and accusing Iran of trying to establish an Eastern Front by funding and
01:59arming terrorists.
02:01And he sort of compared the situation with Gaza by hinting at the possibility that there
02:08should be a temporary evacuation from one neighborhood to another, something that we've
02:13seen, of course, happen in Gaza, where the Israeli forces repeatedly have called for
02:20evacuations of different areas of Gaza, really basically displacing most of the population
02:26of Gaza.
02:27And so the fear, of course, for the international community, for the United Nations, is that
02:32this will lead to the same humanitarian toll that we've seen in Gaza.
02:39And of course, the situation there being far less deaths, more than 600 Palestinians, of
02:48course, about a dozen or so Israelis.
02:52But yet there is this fear that there might be that third front, the Israelis saying that
02:58it's backed by Iran and it's Iran that's opening a third front.
03:01But there's also the risk for Israel that there will be a third front after Gaza and
03:07that border with Lebanon.
03:09Indeed, in that situation in Gaza, already catastrophic for civilians there, could only
03:13get worse if expanded to the West Bank.
03:15We've heard from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights there.
03:19What's the reaction been from elsewhere across the international community?
03:23Well, there have been a few major reactions besides the UN that has come out, of course,
03:30asking for this to stop immediately.
03:33And the UN Secretary General in a statement also urging Israeli forces to, quote, exercise
03:39maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable.
03:45These are things that we've heard from the UN when it comes to Gaza.
03:49With not much success, it has to be said.
03:53At the same time, you have the Palestinian Authority, which is governing basically some
03:59of the locations in the West Bank, that called on the United States because they have,
04:06you know, things that they can discuss with the Americans and they're asking for the
04:12Americans to intervene when it comes to Israeli forces.
04:16The U.S. so far hasn't really responded on the specific operation that is going on.
04:22But yesterday, the State Department did sanction more of the settlers of the West Bank
04:29for their role in the violence in the West Bank.
04:33Nothing so far on the actual Israeli forces.
04:38And you have now the EU that is looking into possibly sanctioning some of the Israeli
04:46ministers without naming anyone, without naming any messages, but for carrying out hate
04:50messages against the Palestinians.