Israel and Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip clashed Thursday with rockets and missiles, the day after a deadly raid by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank.
Eleven Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, were killed on Wednesday and more than 80 others were shot and wounded in the military incursion into Nablus, the Israeli army's deadliest operation in the West Bank since 2005.
According to a recurring scenario, this violence was followed in the night by rocket fire from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, followed by Israeli airstrikes, at dawn, on this territory under the control of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas since 2007. .
No casualties were immediately recorded following this new pass of arms.
Before these nightly developments, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was alarmed that the situation "in the occupied Palestinian territory (is) the most inflammable in years".
The European Union called on "all parties (to work) towards a return to calm and a de-escalation of tensions"
Paris urged "all actors to refrain from any action that could fuel (the) spiral" of violence and the United States said it was "extremely concerned" by the level of violence in the West Bank.
Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 60 Palestinians (including members of armed groups and civilians, including minors) and nine civilians (including three minors) and one Israeli policeman as well than a Ukrainian, according to an AFP tally compiled from official Israeli and Palestinian sources.
"Our immediate priority must be to prevent further escalation, reduce tensions and restore calm," Guterres said.
Before dawn on Thursday, several rockets - eight according to Palestinian witnesses, six according to the Israeli army - were fired before dawn on Thursday from the Gaza Strip into Israel after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad called "the resistance forces to respond "without hesitation" to a "major crime".
The Israeli army said it intercepted five rockets using its air defense system. It then carried out airstrikes against several targets in the Gaza Strip, including a Hamas installation.
Wednesday afternoon in Nablus, a compact crowd, including armed men, participated in the funerals of nine of the dead killed in the Israeli military operation. A tenth death was buried in the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Balata.
The eleventh man, aged 66, died in the evening from tear gas inhalation, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The Israeli army said it carried out an "anti-terrorist operation" in the Palestinian autonomous zone during which "three suspects wanted and involved in armed attacks (in the West Bank) and planning attacks for the immediate future (have) been neutralized".
During the operation, which lasted almost four hours, stones and explosive devices were fired at the soldiers, the army added, adding that none of them had been injured.
At least 82 people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, some of them in serious condition, the Palestinian ministry said.
Islamic Jihad said one of the local commanders of its military wing was among the dead. Nablus-based armed group Areen al-Oussoud ("Lions' Lair") said six fighters from different Palestinian factions were among the 10 dead.
Moustapha Shahine, a resident, heard explosions and gunshots in the morning. "A large number of soldiers stormed" the center of Nablus, he told AFP.
Israeli forces have been increasing for nearly a year what they present as "anti-terrorist" operations in search of "suspects" in the northern West Bank, particularly in Nablus and Jenin, strongholds of Palestinian armed groups.
On Twitter, Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh denounced a "premeditated and barbaric criminal act" and called on the international community to "intervene immediately".
02/23/2023 06:24:18 - Gaza (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
