Israel launched its biggest raid on the West Bank in over 20 years

The israeliIED operation in Jenin was in its final hours on the afternoon of July 4th as a small armoured convoy traversed the wreckage in the town’s main square, avoiding Palestinian ambulances hurrying back and forth. Nearly 1,000 Israeli special forces had entered the previous morning, covered by drone strikes, in pursuit of some 300 militants of Kata’ib Jenin (the Jenin Brigades) who for nearly two years have controlled Jenin’s refugee camp. Twelve Palestinians (Israel says they were militants) and an Israeli soldier were killed. Dozens of Palestinians were wounded and captured. The Israelis say 30 workshops and weapons caches have been destroyed.But the Palestinians’ resistance did not disappear. As your correspondent drove into Jenin with an Israeli unit, an improvised explosive device () detonated beneath the lead vehicle, which just made it to makeshift headquarters on the edge of the camp. In the streets youngsters pelted the convoy with rocks and paint-bombs, while shots were sporadically fired at it from afar. By the morning of July 5th the Israelis had left, ending a 48-hour operation, the biggest raid on a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank since 2002. But Brigadier General Avi Bluth, head of Israel’s forces there, has little doubt that the militants will soon be back.