According to al-Quds, at least 4 PA Arabs were killed, and 28 injured, some of them seriously, as a result of the IDF Operation House and Garden. The PA Health Ministry said the dead are Samih Firas Abu Al-Wafa, Hussam Muhammad Abu Dhiba, and Aws Al-Hanoun, all shot in the chest, and Nour Al-Din Hussam Marshoud who was shot in the head.
The large-scale military operation in Jenin and its refugee camp began with air strikes that targeted several targets, most notably the central terrorist headquarters which is at the heart of the camp and surrounded by schools and other United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration facilities.
The IDF reported 15 drone air raids as of 9 AM on Monday.
The official spokesman for the PA, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said in a statement that “what the Israeli occupation government is doing in the city of Jenin and its camp is a new war crime against our defenseless people.” He called on the international community “to break its shameful silence and take serious action to compel Israel to stop its aggression against our Palestinian people, and to hold it accountable for all these crimes.”
According to Kan11 News, Israel informed the Biden administration some two weeks ago that it was going to have to carry out a more extensive operation in northern Samaria than its routine arrest raids of the past few years. Israel also alerted the PA security services about the operation and reassured them they were not a target.
There has been some confusion as to whether or not Monday’s operation has a name, since giving it a name is a recognition that this is a longer-term operation and not another, albeit on a larger scale, attempt to put out some local fires. Somehow, though, some security officials let reporters know the operation had a name, “Beit V’gan,” or House and Garden (Home and Garden also works), just like the Jerusalem neighborhood and the lifestyle magazine.
The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan reported in vivid color Monday morning: “Thick black smoke from burning tires set alight by residents swirled through the streets, while calls to support the fighters rang out from loudspeakers in mosques. Every entrance to the camp was encircled by Israeli soldiers.
“What is going on in the refugee camp is a real war,” said a Palestinian ambulance driver, Khaled Alahmad. “There were strikes from the sky. Every time we drive in around five to seven ambulances and we come back full with injured people.”
Now, that’s war correspondence!
