https://arab.news/rzxj2
- More than 30 Palestinians have been killed and dozens of arrests have been made during the operation
- War that began in October last year has killed more than 40,500 people, Palestinian health officials say
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday “vehemently” condemned recent assaults by Israeli forces on the West Bank city of Jenin and on refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem, as a major Israeli operation in the two cities continued for an eighth day.
More than 30 Palestinians have been killed and dozens of arrests have been made during the operation, which began a week ago in different areas of the West Bank.
“Targeting of individuals sheltered in refugee camps is yet another breach of international humanitarian law by the Israeli occupation forces,” Foreign Office spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters. “This demonstrates their contempt for international law and the basic tenets of decency and acceptable international behavior.”
Baloch called for an “immediate cessation of these raids masqueraded as military operations in the West Bank,” and urged the UN Security Council to play its role in preventing Israeli forces from carrying out “further attacks against civilians, holding Israel accountable for its war crimes and taking effective measures to protect the Palestinian people.”
The Israeli military has said it launched the operation, its biggest in the West Bank for months, to thwart Iranian-backed groups preparing attacks on Israeli civilians.
Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested in raids and more than 680 — fighters and civilians — have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the war in Gaza began nearly 11 months ago, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.
The latest round of the war began on Oct. 7 after Hamas fighters stormed from Gaza into southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s Gaza campaign has since demolished swathes of the enclave, displaced nearly all its 2.3 million people multiple times, given rise to deadly hunger and disease and killed more than 40,500 people, Palestinian health officials say.
Internationally mediated talks to end the conflict continue, with Hamas and Israel trading blame for a lack of progress and the US expressing optimism that a ceasefire can be reached.