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LAST UPDATE | 19 Jun 2023
ISRAELI FORCES IN the occupied West Bank have killed five Palestinians including a militant, in a raid that saw seven Israeli security personnel wounded and rare helicopter fire.
The sound of gunfire was heard across Jenin as wounded Palestinians continued to arrived by ambulance to the northern West Bank city’s Ibn Sina hospital into the early afternoon, an AFP journalist said.
Crowds, among them Palestinian gunmen, gathered outside Jenin government hospital, as the funerals of those killed in eleven hours of fighting began.
The Palestinian health ministry said five people had been killed and at least 91 others were wounded in the violence.
It named four of those killed: 15-year-old Ahmed Saqer, Khaled Assassa, 21, Qais Jabareen, 21, Ahmad Daraghmeh, 19, and Qassam Abu Saria, 29.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed Abu Saria as a fighter for the militant group.
Among the injured was Palestinian journalist Hazem Nasser, who was hospitalised with a gunshot wound, according to the Palestinian journalists syndicate.
Jenin’s deputy governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP the Israeli forces had launched the raid at around 4am (1am Irish time).
“The army stormed the (Jenin refugee) camp and the city after the dawn prayer in large numbers, and there was intense gunfire,” he said.
An AFP journalist at the scene said Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin at around 3.10pm (12.10pm Irish time).
The Israeli army said an armoured vehicle had been hit by a “very unusual and dramatic” explosive device at around 7.1 am (4.10am Irish time), during “routine activity” to arrest two “wanted suspects” – one affiliated with Islamist movement Hamas and the other with the Islamic Jihad.
“We had five Israeli border police guys wounded, and two soldiers also lightly wounded,” army spokesman Richard Hecht said. “From that point, we had to extract our injured.”
“It will take a few hours, it’s going to be pretty harsh, there is a lot of fire,” he added in the early afternoon.
The army said that an Apache helicopter had fired missiles in support of the soldiers, a rare move in the West Bank.
A Palestinian intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity it was the first time since 2002 – during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising – that the Israeli army has fired missiles from an aircraft during a raid in Jenin.
The United Nations rights chief, Volker Turk, said he was “extremely worried by the deteriorating situation”.
“Unlawful killings of Palestinians by the Israeli security forces have increased, including apparent extrajudicial executions,” he added.
Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has escalated over the past year, specially after the hard-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took power in December.
Palestinian health minister Mai al-Kaila called in a statement for the “urgent” dispatch of blood and medical supplies to Jenin.
Hussein al-Sheikh, the Palestinian Authority’s civil affairs minister, said a “fierce and open war is being waged against the Palestinian people … by the occupation (Israeli) forces”.
He called for the Palestinian leadership to take “unprecedented decisions” without elaborating.
Speaking as the raid unfolded, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: “We will use all the tools at our disposal and strike terrorists wherever they may be.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War and its forces regularly launch incursions into Palestinian cities, which are nominally under the control of president Mahmud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority.
Later, two Israeli soldiers were wounded after Palestinians rammed them at a checkpoint near Jenin, the army said.
“The soldiers responded with fire, hits were identified,” a statement said.
The Palestinian health ministry said two Palestinians suffering gunshot wounds were being treated in a Jenin hospital, one of them in a critical condition.
Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp – which was besieged by the army in 2002 and saw deadly fighting – have frequently been the site of violent clashes between Israel and the Palestinians.
In March, four Palestinians were killed during the a raid on the camp.
10 Palestinians were killed in another operation in the camp in January – at the time the deadliest single raid in the West Bank for 20 years. An incursion into Nablus the following month killed 11 Palestinians.
Since the start of the year, at least 163 Palestinians, 21 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian have been killed in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources.
The figures include combatants as well as civilians and, on the Israeli side, three members of the Arab minority.
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I cannot understand why the Gov do not invest that money into the Air Corp and let them carry out all SAR missions, as it is the AirCorp carry out many missions already.
At least this way the Gov would own the helis etc instead send money out of the state.
@Brian Guilfoyle: Depreciation, maybe? I’d imagine those helis are rugged, because they get a lot of use.
@Brian Guilfoyle: Absolutely 100% agree, the Coast Guard should be more closely integrated into Defence Forces , we have spent the guts of € Billion with CHC. We need to invest in Aer Corps and Navy to deliver a world class Coast Guard and Naval Patrol. Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in terms of Maritime territory is 11 times the size of Ireland. The Government should at this a strategic long term Investment if they are serious about Ireland’s Neutrally or Militarily non -aligned. Our capabilities are really poor when when compared with other “Neutral“ countries.
We need to be position to be able to conduct active 24×7 surveillance & protection of EEZ which contains some the most stratgeic Fibre optic comms between Europe and North America and some of fishing waters on the Globe.
@Brian Guilfoyle: We can’t even operate a basic Defence Force as it is, the thing is falling apart at the seams – plus we need help from the UK to protect our own airspace. Don’t forget the Air Corps ‘weren’t available’ the night of the R116 tragedy either….just another in a long history of unavailability. Can you imagine the current AC doing SAR in all fairness. Sorry to hear your ship is sinking, but the AC “is not available”… The Government is obviously at fault and needs to invest the same if not more into the Defence Forces before it can even ‘consider’ doing SAR. This is a 24-7 role with 98%+ availability, not a ’9 to 5′ jobbie.
@Frank Flanagan: were the Air Corps supposed to be waiting on an emergency that night 116 went down??? Crews are paid to be on duty… CHC had had Crews paid to be in Dublin, Waterford, Shannon and Sligo 24 x 7… that was their contract.. the Air Corps carried out SAR for 42 years prior to politicians awarding th contract to CHC… The Air Corps has been slowly draining since..
I just hope it’s not going to be another taxpayer sponsored service outsourced abroad
@Daniel Dudek:
Or brown envelope job
Service must be working so now it’s going to get broken. Why can’t they just renew the contract with the same people. Has someone got a vested interest here I wonder.
@Dave Barrett: or maybe there’s better aircraft or deal to be had. There’s plenty to moan about with our government but the amount of just baseless conjecture is astonishing. Moaning journal.
It seemed that we in Ireland are hell-bent on outsourcing to private companies making people believe we are getting a better deal… but the reality is we’re not at €670 million… has an average helicopter for this purpose is about €20 million which Air Corps equipped with 4 would only be required…Air Corps is also getting two new C295 SaR aircraft is designed for this purpose…so there is €500 million been wasted by this government.
@PMac: They can buy all the aircraft in the world, but when you haven’t got the qualified staff to operate them, whats the point.
Does anyone know are the crews and helicopters employed by CHC and therefore they will either lose their jobs or have to be rehired, and the machines potentially sent off to some other contract, or is it that this Bristow crew will just step in and crews and helicopters will just keep going pretty much as is with other people managing logistics that kinda thing? Seems mad to dismantle a service that’s already there and get in and train new crews etc potentially. In that case the government should have just bought out CHC Ireland and folded it into the army services. It’s not like we couldn’t afford it, it’s just that we’d probably feck up running it.
@bazhealy: Bristow will have to use their own machines, likely crews also though I imagine the current crews could/will apply for to fill their own positions.
Should be the Aircorps, end of!
@Chutes: thanks Chutes. Yes it should. Without a shadow of a doubt.
Air corps had it before CHC and the crash at Tramore scuppered their chance of getting it..
Probably over the outcome of the accident
Which was pilot error but the insurer
Would not pay out the claims for the 3 deaths of the rest of the crew and the aircraft.
A very messy case indeed .
Bristow operate alot oil rig work etc
Can I ask a question, how
Somebody must have done the maths
have your say