Israeli military forces raided a refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Monday, igniting the fiercest day of fighting in years as Palestinian militants detonated roadside bombs and Israeli helicopter gunships struck Palestinian gunmen to rescue troops trapped in the hourslong firefight.
An Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache attack helicopter releases a payload during an Israeli army raid in in the West Bank city of Jenin on Monday.Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht described Palestinian militants’ use of at least one powerful roadside bomb as “very unusual and dramatic.” Five mangled vehicles were stuck in the firefight for hours, requiring the military to dispatch helicopters as part of an elaborate evacuation operation.
The Israeli army said that the Palestinian gunfire caused minor damage to the spinning tail rotor of a helicopter.“They were shooting at anything and everything that moved,” hospital director Tawfik al-Shobaki said of Israeli forces. “Of course there was a lot of shooting and explosions, but everyone knew we were journalists covering it,” fellow freelance journalist Alaa Badarneh said. “All of a sudden we were surrounded and the army started shooting toward us.”
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry denounced what it called Israel’s “continued escalation against the Palestinians,” saying the violence undermined efforts to reduce regional tensions.
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