CIA Director William Burns traveled to Israel and the West Bank for meetings with foreign counterparts amid a violent crackdown in a Jenin refugee camp.
Burns’s visit was preplanned before the raid, and he’s expected to meet with his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts. His trip will be likely affected by the increased tension, Axios reported on Thursday.
PALESTINIANS SAY NINE KILLED BY ISRAELI ARMY IN RAID
Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including some militants, when it conducted a raid in the West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. This prompted the Palestinian Authority to pause its security coordination with Israel. Israeli forces said they were attempting to apprehend a “terror squad belonging to the Islamic Jihad terror organization.”
A 60-year-old woman was among the Palestinians who were killed, and it marks one of the deadliest days since Israeli raids intensified at the end of last year.
“The Islamic Jihad terror operatives were heavily involved in executing and planning multiple major terror attacks, including shooting attacks on IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians,” the joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Security Agency, and Israel Border Police said. They added that two armed suspects were “neutralized” while fleeing and another was at the scene.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the incident as “a massacre from the Israeli occupation government, in the shadow of international silence” in a statement from his office, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised “the courage and resourcefulness of the soldiers who prevented attacks that could have cost many lives.”
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“Today in Jenin, at least nine Palestinians, including militants and at least one civilian, were killed and over twenty injured during an Israeli Defense Forces counterterrorism operation against a Palestinian Islamic Jihad cell,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. “We recognize the very real security challenges facing Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and condemn terrorist groups planning and carrying out attacks against civilians. We mourn the loss of innocent lives as well as injuries to civilians, and are deeply concerned by the cycle of violence in the West Bank.”
Israeli authorities are preparing for the possibility of increased hostilities as Palestinian protests grow.
