Israel launched a large-scale military operation Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, where the army said it killed nine Palestinian fighters, while the nearly 11-month Gaza war showed no sign of abating despite ongoing U.S. efforts to help broker a truce. Violence has surged in the West Bank during the Gaza conflict sparked by Islamist group Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, which saw the militants kill some 1,200 people and take about 250 others hostage.
The war has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties. It has also caused widespread destruction in the Palestinian territory, displaced nearly all of its 2.4 million people — many of them multiple times — triggering a worsening humanitarian crisis.
In the West Bank in the early hours of Wednesday, the Israeli military launched a series of coordinated raids across four cities — Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem. The army said it was carrying out a “counterterrorism operation” involving airstrikes, ground forces and bulldozers.
Read more at CBSnews.com
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