Israel launches biggest Palestine attack in 20 years with drone strikes on refugee camp

Israel launched a huge raid in Palestine today and used drone strikes on a refugee camp in its biggest West Bank incursion in 20 years.

At least seven Palestinians were killed and 28 injured in the attack but the death toll is expected to rise, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

In a separate incident, a 21-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the ministry said.

A brigade of Israeli troops – usually around 1,000 to 2,000 soldiers – entered the city and it was the first time airstrikes had been used since the Second Intifada, around 20 years.

While Israel described the attack as a pinpoint operation to target militants, smoke was seen billowing from within crowded civilian areas.

Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, praised the efforts of the military and accused Iran of being behind the violence by funding Palestinian militant groups.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that it launched an “extensive counterterrorism effort in the area of the city of Jenin and the Jenin Camp”, striking “terrorist infrastructure.”

But Palestinians reject these claims, saying the violence is a response to 56 years of occupation by Israel since it captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.

A spokesperson for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, called the operation “a new war crime against our defenceless people.”