A major Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on Monday involving drone strikes and hundreds of soldiers left at least eight people dead, according to reports. The Palestinian health ministry said more than 50 others were wounded in Jenin while a ninth person was killed in Ramallah overnight after suffering a gunshot wound to the head at a checkpoint. The Israeli military said its forces had targeted a building being used as a command center by the Jenin Brigades, a unit of militant groups based in Jenin’s refugee camp, in what Israel’s armed forces claimed was part of a counterterrorism campaign. “What is going on in the refugee camp is real war,” Khaled Alahmad, a Palestinian ambulance driver, told Reuters of the violence on Monday. “There were strikes from the sky targeting the camp, every time we drive in, around five to seven ambulances and we come back full with injured people.” Before June 21, the Israeli military had not launched drone strikes in the West Bank since 2006.
