Tel Aviv attack latest: Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza Strip as toll in Jenin rises to 12

The Israeli military withdrew its troops from a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, ending an intense two-day operation that has killed at least 12 Palestinians and displaced thousands from their homes.

Witnesses said they saw convoys of military vehicles leaving Jenin refugee camp after one of the largest operations in two decades.

During the raid, the army said it uncovered militants’ hideouts, weapons depots and an underground shaft for storing explosives.

The army said it dismantled six explosives production facilities and three operational rooms in Jenin.

“The weapons were in hiding places, a mosque, hidden pits in civilian areas, operations centers and in vehicles,” it said.

UN agencies on Tuesday expressed concern after it was revealed that at least three children were among those killed by Israeli forces in their raids on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

Israel on Monday launched one of its largest operations in the refugee camp in 20 years, conducting a series of drone strikes and dispatching bulldozers and hundreds of troops that engaged in extensive firefights and forced thousands of Palestinians to flee the camps through alleyways.

In the West Bank, a spokesman for the UN Humanitarian Office said it was “concerned about the scale of air and ground operations taking place in Jenin… and about airstrikes on a densely populated refugee camp.”

During the operation, as Israeli forces began evacuating the refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Hamas said “all options to support Jenin and his heroes were on the table.”

“We have sent clear messages to the enemy across all parties that the resistance in all areas is not far from what is happening and that the enemy must stop its aggression immediately,” said Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ political bureau .

“We tell the enemy that the time is up for you to carry out your aggression against our people without paying the price, and today Jenin teaches you a lesson in resistance and steadfastness.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it evacuated 500 families from the camp, about 3,000 people.

Jihad Hassan, 63, who fled the camp after his son was wounded, said a drone strike prompted him to leave. “You don’t hear a sound, you only see the explosion,” he said while waiting with his son at Jenin Government Hospital.

“It’s something when a person is forced to leave their home.” Around 100 people were injured, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said, 20 of them seriously.

Israeli and Palestinian officials reported fighting late Tuesday near a hospital in Jenin.

MSF accused the Israeli army of firing tear gas at a hospital, filling the emergency room with smoke and forcing emergency patients to be treated in a main hall.

Officials at a Palestinian hospital told the official Wafa news agency that three civilians were hit by Israeli fire.

Kefah Ja’ayyasah, a resident of the camp, said soldiers forced their way into her home and locked the family inside.

“They took the young men of my family upstairs and left the wives and children in the first floor apartment,” she told the Associated Press.

She claimed the soldiers did not allow her to take food to the children and prevented a rescue team from entering the home when she cried for help, before finally allowing the family to go to a hospital.

Israeli forces launched an airstrike on the Gaza Strip in response to five rockets fired into Israeli territory.

The Shehab News agencies report attacks near al-Baydar, west of Gaza City, and in Beit Lahiyeh, in the northern Gaza Strip.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Israeli army said militants in the Gaza Strip fired five rockets at Israel.

All of the missiles were said to have been “successfully intercepted,” but the firings increased the risk of fighting on a second front.

Thousands have fled Israel’s largest military operation in the occupied West Bank in decades as a car accident in Tel Aviv highlighted the risk of violence spreading.

At least 12 Palestinians, including three children, were killed and more than 100 injured in the Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp, which began with a drone strike on Monday.

According to the United Nations, Israeli military bulldozers destroyed key roads and prevented ambulances from entering the camp, which has lost access to drinking water, electricity and, in some areas, food.

“At the moment we are completing the mission and I can say that our extensive activity in Jenin is not a one-off operation,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.