UN calls on Israel to end 'deeply concerning' operation in the West Bank

Summary

The head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, urges Israel to stop its operation in the West Bank, saying it is "fuelling an already explosive situation"
Israel began what it called a "counter-terrorism operation" in four areas of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, with at least nine people killed
The raids are believed to be the first time since the second intifada - a major Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2005 - that several Palestinian cities have been targeted simultaneously
On the second day of raids, Israel's military says it killed five "terrorists" who had hidden in a mosque

Live Reporting

Edited by Emily Atkinson and Francesca Gillett, with Lucy Williamson reporting from Jenin in the occupied West Bank

'You hear the sound of gunfire and the sound of bulldozers'published at 14:32 British Summer Time 28 August
Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem
We've been hearing from another resident in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarm.
"They closed all the main roads that lead to Nur Shams," she says. "All the streets are closed."
She says there is currently a raid happening in one of the camp's neighbourhoods, with soldiers seen by residents going from house to house.
"The situation from midnight until now is that you cannot know exactly what's happening - you hear the sound of gunfire and explosions, and the sound of bulldozers."
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
The Israeli military says it has been "dismantling explosives planted under the roads" during the raids
Dozens killed in Gaza in past day, Hamas-run health ministry sayspublished at 13:57 British Summer Time 28 August
Today's page has been focusing on the Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank, which comes after months of escalating violence there since the war in Gaza broke out.
As we reported earlier, the West Bank has seen many clashes between Palestinian armed groups and Israeli forces following Hamas's 7 October attacks on southern Israel - in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.
In Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says 58 people have been killed in attacks over the past day, taking the death toll from Israel's retaliatory war to more than 40,500.
According to reports, an Israeli attack near a school housing displaced families in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, killing at least eight Palestinians.
People in Khan Younis in southern Gaza say Israeli tanks have advanced into the centre of the city, where health officials report at least 11 people have been killed.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it has destroyed a three-kilometre (two-mile) long tunnel in central Gaza, adding that it's forces have "eliminated dozens of terrorists and dismantled hundreds of terrorist infrastructure" in recent weeks.
Image caption,
A map showing Gaza and the West Bank, including parts of the West Bank where Israeli operations took place today
'The camp is surrounded', says Tulkarm manpublished at 13:32 British Summer Time 28 August
Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
An Israeli soldier seen during a raid in the Nur Shams camp earlier
We’re speaking to people in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarm - one of the areas in the north of the West Bank where Israel says it is carrying out its "counter-terrorism operation".
One man says the Israeli military was surrounding the camp and that there were "multiple clash points".
Another resident in the area, Suleiman Zuhairi, also says the camp is surrounded, and that streets in the area have been blocked or destroyed by bulldozers and military vehicles.
He says the IDF had “taken control of areas and created inspection points”.
At the moment, “everyone who wants to leave can but they will have to pass an IDF checkpoint and be inspected."
Israeli military personnel had said they would remain for "quite a while", he adds.
In the past, he says people would leave the camp ahead of Israeli operations, but this time "it caught us by surprise".
Latest pictures from the West Bankpublished at 12:58 British Summer Time 28 August
Some more pictures have been coming in from the occupied West Bank cities where the Israeli military have been carrying out raids.
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
Image caption,
Israeli soldiers can be seen walking down a street during a raid in the al-Far'a refugee camp, where Israel said it killed four "armed terrorists" with air strikes earlier today
Image source, EPA
Image caption,
Elsewhere, Palestinians are seen appearing to leave a hospital in Jenin. The Palestinian health ministry earlier said troops had surrounded the hospital, blocking off access
Image source, EPA
Image caption,
Also in Jenin, a Palestinian Red Crescent vehicle appears to be stopped and searched by the military
Israel fears the West Bank is spinning out of controlpublished at 12:46 British Summer Time 28 August
Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent
This morning’s major, multi-pronged operation in the West Bank is the latest sign that Israel fears the area is spinning out of control.
Israel was already confronting a new generation of armed groups, notably in Jenin, before the war in Gaza erupted last October.
But now a battle is raging in a number of refugee camps across the northern part of the West Bank, including those attacked today.
"It’s like a cancer. It’s spreading," Gen Israel Ziv, the former head of the IDF’s operations division, told me earlier this month.
"There’s no doubt that the intensity in Samaria (Israel’s term for the northern part of the West Bank) is now equal or even more than the intensity of the war in Gaza."
Israel regards the emergence of the new armed groups as part of an Iranian effort to keep Israel preoccupied on as many fronts as possible.
Tehran, officials say, is responsible for funding and, in some cases, arming the militants (via smuggling routes through Syria and Jordan).
"It’s a 100% Iranian effort to build a proxy in Samaria," Gen Ziv said.
Until now, the Israeli military has more or less controlled the situation.
But the IDF’s more aggressive tactics - including air strikes, highly destructive raids into refugee camps and a mounting civilian death toll - run the risk of turning the armed groups into local heroes, with more and more young Palestinians willing to mobilise.
When you add the Israeli government’s latest moves to create new Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank, and the increasingly violent actions of some Jewish settlers, the result is an increasingly combustible atmosphere.
"Definitely we’re not controlling the escalation over there," Gen Ziv said.
An eerie quiet here on Jenin's streetspublished at 12:24 British Summer Time 28 August
Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Jenin
Image caption,
The shops are all shuttered in Jenin
I'm just walking up the main street in Jenin towards the government hospital.
It is eerily quiet, there's nobody about - the streets are completely deserted.
There's just the lone wail of an ambulance every now and then heading away from the hospital, as well as the sweet, sickly smell of mangoes left out untended under the hot sun.
One ambulance has just headed back into the hospital past the line of reporters - and beyond it, the Israeli military vehicles.
Palestinian president cuts Saudi Arabia trip shortpublished at 12:09 British Summer Time 28 August
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Mahmoud Abbas (left) was in Saudi Arabia on a diplomatic trip, meeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) yesterday
President Mahmoud Abbas has cut short a trip to Saudi Arabia to monitor the situation in the West Bank, according to Palestinian media.
"Abbas cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to his homeland on Wednesday to follow up on the latest developments in light of the Israeli aggression on the northern West Bank," Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.
Abbas is the head of the Palestinian Authority, which has limited governance in parts of the occupied West Bank not under full Israeli control.
Israeli forces withdraw from medical centre, Red Crescent sayspublished at 12:04 British Summer Time 28 August
Earlier we reported that Israeli soldiers entered a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) medical facility in the Far'a refugee camp near Tubas, detaining workers and cutting off communication with them.
In an update, the humanitarian organisation says the troops have now withdrawn - alleging they assaulted the centre's director and fired shots inside the building.
The Israeli military is yet to comment on the specific incident, but says it's carrying out "counter-terrorism operations" in the area.
Image source, Palestine Red Crescent Society
Image caption,
The PRCS shared this image of what looks like a bullet hole in a wall
What's the latest?published at 11:51 British Summer Time 28 August
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
- At least nine Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces, Palestinian health officials and the Israeli military say. Israeli officials say those killed were "armed terrorists"
- At least four Palestinian cities are being targeted at the same time - Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus and Tubas
- An Israeli military spokesperson told the Associated Press news agency that "large forces" have entered Jenin
- In Far’a camp near Tubas, medics say ambulances are struggling to reach the wounded after an Israeli drone strike
- Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have been "operating with full force since last night in the Jenin and Tulkarm refugee camps to dismantle Iranian-Islamic terror infrastructures established there"
- Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) condemned the Israeli security force's "increasingly military response" in the West Bank
Stay with us for more.
'Large forces' enter Jenin – Israeli militarypublished at 11:27 British Summer Time 28 August
An Israeli military spokesman says that “large forces” have entered the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Associated Press reports.
Lt Col Nadav Shoshani provided more details in a post, external on X, saying that troops operating in the Palestinian cities of Jenin and Tulkarm are carrying out "intelligence-guided, counter-terrorism operations" in an effort to prevent attacks on civilians.
This follows on a joint statement shared earlier by Israeli officials, which says that nine people have been killed in the military operation.
UN condemns Israeli military operation in West Bankpublished at 11:10 British Summer Time 28 August
Image source, AFP via Getty Images
The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) has condemned the Israeli security force's "increasingly military response" in the occupied West Bank.
The OHCHR says that the Israeli military's recent operation in the West Bank is being conducted "in a manner which violates international law and risks further enflaming an already explosive situation".
"The violence between the ISF and armed Palestinians in the West Bank does not constitute an armed conflict under international humanitarian law," the statement says, adding that "the use of force in the West Bank must comply with human rights norms".
Since Hamas's deadly attack on southern Israel on 7 October, Israel has carried out near-daily raids across the West Bank.
Palestinian health officials say Israeli troops blocking ambulance accesspublished at 11:02 British Summer Time 28 August
Image source, EPA
Image caption,
Israeli army vehicles parked outside a hospital in Jenin today
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank has urged the international community to help protect hospitals in Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas.
In a statement this morning, the ministry asks "the international community and the Red Cross" for help, accusing the Israeli military of blocking ambulance access, which "constitutes a blatant violation" of humanitarian law.
It says the Israeli army closed roads leading to Ibn Sina Hospital, and surrounded Khalil Suleiman Hospital and the headquarters of the Red Crescent and Friends of the Patients societies.
We earlier reported that Israeli troops were outside a hospital in Jenin, checking the IDs of people leaving.
Red Crescent says Israeli forces 'storm medical point'published at 10:54 British Summer Time 28 August
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PCRS) says Israeli forces have "stormed" its medical point in Far’a refugee camp near Tubas.
In a post on X, the humanitarian organisation adds the troops "detained the teams, and cut off all communication with them".
The PCRS also says it has a video of the incident, external, which shows medical workers in uniform standing next to a wall, while two Israeli soldiers stand guard over them.
Image source, Palestine Red Crescent Society
'They're bringing military vehicles and bulldozers'published at 10:41 British Summer Time 28 August
Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem
A woman in Tubas, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said the Israeli military's operation was still happening in Far’a camp.
“They’re bringing more and more military vehicles and bulldozers,” she said on the phone. “Until now, there is the sound of drones.”
The woman said this morning’s action there did not feel “that different” to “normal raids on the West Bank”.
But, she said, “we are all on edge and waiting to see if there will be any escalation”.
Israel says nine killed in West Bank operationpublished at 10:28 British Summer Time 28 August
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israeli security services and police have released a joint statement on what they're calling a "counter-terrorism operation" in Jenin and Tulkarm.
The statement says three "armed terrorists" in Jenin who "posed a threat to the security forces" were killed by an air strike.
It says two more armed men were killed on the ground in Jenin and Tulkarm, and troops "dismantled explosives that were planted under the roads in the area and were intended to be detonated in attacks against the security forces".
(See our previous post for more from the Jenin refugee camp).
Four more were killed in a Far’a camp near Tubas by an aircraft, the statement adds.
Jenin resident says Israeli army destroyed main street in refugee camppublished at 10:23 British Summer Time 28 August
Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent, reporting from the West Bank
A resident of Jenin refugee camp tells me he could hear explosions nearby, and the buzzing of drones overhead.
He says there is currently no sign of armed fighters taking on Israeli forces in gun battles.
He says the army destroyed the main street through the camp and piled rubble at the entrance to block access.
Israeli troops stationed outside hospital as raids continuepublished at 10:17 British Summer Time 28 August
Alice Cuddy
Reporting from Jerusalem
We've just been speaking on the phone to a local journalist in the West Bank city Jenin, who says the operation there is still ongoing.
The journalist, currently inside Jenin Government Hospital, said there were Israeli troops stationed outside.
"At this moment, there are patients that are leaving the hospital but after the IDF check their IDs," she said.
"It's a scary situation."
As we've reported, the Israeli security forces have said they are carrying out a "counter-terrorism operation" in the north of the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian presidency: 'West Bank violence will lead to dangerous results'published at 10:00 British Summer Time 28 August
Escalating violence in the West Bank, alongside the ongoing war in Gaza, will lead to "dire and dangerous results for which everyone will pay the price", the Palestinian presidency says.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for the presidency, says that latest aggression in the north of the West Bank "is a continuation of the comprehensive war on our people, our land and our holy sites", Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.
He says the Israeli authorities, which occupy the West Bank, bear responsibility for the escalation, as does the US "as it provides protection and support for this occupation to continue its war against our Palestinian people".
He calls on the US to intervene to stop the escalation, which "poses a threat to the stability of the region and the entire world".
The scale of what's happening feels differentpublished at 09:50 British Summer Time 28 August
Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent, reporting from the West Bank
There’s now just one road open into Jenin – all other routes have reportedly been blocked by the army and checkpoints set up to stop anyone entering or leaving the city.
Troops have surrounded both the main government hospital there, and the nearby Ibn Sina Hospital. A BBC colleague at the scene says that anyone wanting to leave the hospitals must present ID to the Israeli forces, and be searched before leaving the area.
He says searches are also continuing in the refugee camp there – a base for armed groups in Jenin, and the scene of many fierce gun-battles in the past.
We’ve been to Jenin during Israeli military operations many times in the past 10 months, but the scale of what’s happening here now feels different.
Four West Bank cities raided at once for the first time since second intifadapublished at 09:41 British Summer Time 28 August
As we've been reporting, at least four Palestinian cities are being targeted at the same time in the occupied West Bank.
It is believed to be the first time since the second intifada - a major Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2005 - that several cities have been targeted simultaneously in this way.
Palestinian media says that the main roads into Jenin have been closed off - with reports of armed clashes in the city’s refugee camp, Israeli troops entering a hospital and a strike on a vehicle in a nearby village at dawn. Israeli forces also appear to have blocked off two hospitals in Tulkarm.
Israeli military raids on Nablus are reportedly focused on two refugee camps there. In Far’a camp near Tubas, medics say ambulances are struggling to reach the wounded after an alleged Israeli drone strike.