The National / April 19, 2023
Operation took place hours after two Israeli men were injured by gunfire in annexed East Jerusalem.
Seven Palestinians were injured in an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
Six people had “minor injuries from live fire” and were taken to Jenin governmental hospital, the ministry said, following the raid in the northern West Bank city. One of those shot was taken to a hospital nearby.
The operation took place hours after two Israeli men were injured by gunfire near a Jewish site in annexed east Jerusalem.
The West Bank has been the site of several deadly attacks and military raids, along with killings in Israel, in recent weeks.
The Israeli military confirmed an operation was under way in the Jenin refugee camp. It did not give more details.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli authorities said a suspected Palestinian gunman had wounded two Israeli men in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of east Jerusalem after firing at their car.
“Police officers are at the scene conducting searches for the suspect who fled,” police said.
Israeli security forces closed off streets in the neighbourhood.
AFP said officers entered a Palestinian home, with a drone and helicopter, as well as police dogs aiding the search.
Officers enforcing the shutdown prevented cars and people from moving in the centre of the neighbourhood, as heavily armed forces combed the area, the report said.
Police said they had found the shooter’s gun near the scene of the attack, which took place near the tomb of Simeon the Just, a site frequented by religious Jews.
The weapon was identified as a Carlo makeshift submachine gun, which Palestinians manufacture in the West Bank.
Hadassah hospital said they received a 48-year-old gunshot victim lightly wounded and Shaare Zedek medical centre said it was treating a man in his 50s.
The search took place as a two-minute siren marked Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day at 10am local time, honouring more than six million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Second World War.
Jerusalem mayor Moshe Lion said one of the Holocaust’s main lessons was “to never be helpless in the face of those seeking to harm us”.
Later in the morning, most of the security forces had left Sheikh Jarrah, with roads reopened and traffic flowing as normal, AFP said.
Sheikh Jarrah was the focal point of protests against the eviction of Palestinian residents by Israeli settler organisations in the build up to and during the May 2021 war between Israel and Gaza militants.
It is also the site of a weekly Israeli demonstration against the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The attack took place a day after a Palestinian woman stabbed and moderately wounded an Israeli man at the Gush Etzion junction in the southern West Bank.
The woman was shot by security forces and taken to hospital in moderate condition.
The conflict has this year claimed the lives of at least 96 Palestinians, 19 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian, AFP said.
These figures include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, including minors, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, including minors, and three members of the Palestinian minority.
