Israeli forces have killed at least 70 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank this year [Getty]
Israel has continued its weeks-long offensive on the occupied West Bank, where it has besieged the Jenin and Tulkarm camps and carried out airstrikes on residential areas, displacing thousands of Palestinians.
Israel’s assault on Jenin has entered its fifteenth day, while its aggression against the Tulkarm camp is now into its ninth day.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Israel’s actions as “ethnic cleansing” on Monday, with the health ministry saying Israeli forces killed 70 people in the territory this year, including 10 children.
Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing”.
Soldiers wounded in checkpoint shooting
Six Israeli soldiers were wounded, including two seriously, in a shooting at a checkpoint in Tayasir, east of Tubas on Tuesday.
Israeli media reported that the attacker, who was wearing a military-style vest, exchanged fire with the soldiers for several minutes before being killed.
Israeli emergency services said six people were treated at the scene and evacuated to hospitals for treatment.
Tubas Governorate official Adham Odeh told The New Arab‘s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Israeli forces completely closed the checkpoint and prevented movement in and out of it.
The closing of the checkpoint forced the Education Directorate in Tubas Governorate to postpone schooling hours in Tubas and the Jordan Valley.
The attack on the soldiers was hailed by Hamas, who said that the act displayed to Israel “the determination of our revolutionary youth and our valiant resistance to continue on the path of resistance”. The group also reiterated its call for Palestinians in the West Bank to confront Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied territories.
Islamic Jihad praised the “heroic” attack on the checkpoint, saying “the resistance will continue until the occupation is defeated”.
Trump says Israel ‘too small’
US President Donald Trump on Monday swerved giving a direct answer to a question about whether he would support Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank.
The president, who took questions from reporters in the Oval Office, appeared to suggest that Israel does not have enough land.
“I’m not going to talk about that. It certainly is a small, it’s a small country in terms of land,” Trump said.
“See this pen?” he said. “This wonderful pen on my desk is the Middle East, and the top of the pen – that’s Israel.”
He added: “That’s not good, right? You know, it’s a pretty big difference. I use that as an analogy – it’s pretty accurate, actually.
“It’s a pretty small piece of land. It’s amazing what they’ve been able to do when you think about it, [There’s] a lot of good, smart brain power, but it is a very small piece of land, no question about it.”
The US president is due to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Monday, in talks seen as pivotal for the future of the Gaza ceasefire.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 884 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 30 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to official Israeli figures.