DUBAI, December 12. /TASS/. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stormed a refugee camp and a state hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin, the Lebanese Al Mayadeen TV channel reported.

According to the channel, Israeli troops surrounded and stormed the refugee camp in Jenin, blocking all entrances and exits with heavy military equipment, while IDF snipers were deployed on the roofs of the surrounding buildings. The channel also said that clashes broke out between the servicemen storming the camp and Palestinian resistance forces.

Qatar's Al Jazeera TV reported that Israeli army bulldozers were tearing up roads and destroying infrastructure in Jenin. The city itself is under heavy artillery fire. There are reports of heavy fighting between Israeli servicemen and Palestinian fighters near the Al-Razi Hospital, which has been besieged by the Israeli military.

Al Jazeera television pointed out that three other hospitals in the city are also surrounded by military equipment. Near one of them, Israeli soldiers are using a loudspeaker to call on the gunmen to leave the building voluntarily.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 200 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also underway in the West Bank.