The European Union (EU) is “deeply alarmed” by the Israeli military operation in the city of Nablus, in the West Bank, which this Wednesday caused the death of ten Palestinians, including a minor, stressed the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell .
In a statement, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy stressed that the body is “deeply alarmed by the spiral of violence in the West Bank.”
Josep Borrell has stressed that it is “of the utmost importance that all parties work to restore calm and reduce tensions to avoid further loss of life,” reports the Efe news agency.
The Israeli military operation in Nablus, in the northern Israeli-occupied West Bank, the scene of recurring and deadly clashes, left at least ten Palestinians dead and around 100 wounded.
“The EU deplores the deaths of civilians and reiterates that the use of force must be proportionate, with full respect for international humanitarian law, and only as a last resort when strictly unavoidable to protect lives,” Borrell added.
The Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs, Hussein al-Sheikh, denounced a massacre and urged the international community to “intervene immediately”, according to a message he posted on the social network Twitter quoted by the French agency AFP.
This is the deadliest raid in the West Bank since at least 2005, similar to the Jan. 26 attack in Jenin, also in the northern West Bank, that killed 10 Palestinians.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it carried out an “anti-terrorist operation” in Nablus, during which it shot down “three suspects who were involved in armed attacks [na Cisjordânia] and attacks planned for the immediate future”.
Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian armed group, revealed that one of the local commanders of its military wing was among the dead.
An AFP reporter saw Israeli soldiers firing tear gas canisters at Palestinian youths in central Nablus, who threw stones at military vehicles and burned tires.
For nearly a year, Israeli forces have been conducting what they call “anti-terror operations” searching for suspects in the northern West Bank, particularly Nablus and Jenin, strongholds of Palestinian armed groups.
The last major Israeli operation in Nablus took place in October 2022, when five Palestinians were killed in an attack on the city-based armed group Areen al-Oussoud.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, two of the injured were journalists covering the intervention.
Today’s clashes take place in a context of renewed violence since the beginning of the year in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
An Israeli raid on the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp in late January was followed by gunfire between armed groups in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli army, and a deadly attack in East Jerusalem.
“Preventing further violence is an urgent priority,” UN Middle East mediator Tor Wennesland said on Monday.
Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 58 Palestinians (members of armed groups and civilians, including minors), nine Israeli civilians (including three minors) and one Ukrainian woman, according to an AFP tally based on in official Israeli and Palestinian sources.
Source: TSF
