DUBAI, September 12. /TASS/. At least 50 people were killed in raids and strikes by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during its large-scale operation in the West Bank launched on August 28, Al Jazeera reported.

According to the news outlet, 21 people were killed in Jenin, 12 - in Tulkarem, 13 in Tubas, one in Nablus and three people were killed in Hebron. According to Al Jazeera, Israel’s ongoing offensive in the West Bank is its largest there since the early 2000s. The military campaign has mainly focused on the West Bank’s north.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. 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 has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria, followed by a ground operation in the enclave. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.