Israel launches largest occupied West Bank offensive since Second Intifada

Tulkarm during an exchange of fire and said its fighters downed an Israeli drone.

There were no immediate reports of Israeli casualties.

Hospitals besieged

The Jenin Governmental Hospital, also known as the Khalil Suleiman Hospital, remains under Israeli siege almost 12 hours after the West Bank city was raided, the hospital's director told MEE.

Dr Wissam Abu Bakr said Israeli military vehicles surround the hospital, preventing people from entering and leaving freely.

“Ambulances that transported several casualties from the city were subjected to careful inspection as they attempted to enter the hospital, while soldiers searched the identity cards of some of those trapped in the hospital before allowing them to leave it after several hours,” Abu Bakr said.

Sniper units are also deployed in buildings adjacent to and overlooking the hospital, he added, restricting the movement of residents.  

In Far'a camp, Ghoneimi said due to the closure of roads leading to the camp, paramedics had been forced to take a bumpy road to transport the dead and wounded.

Some residents were forced to cut trees near their homes to allow ambulances to drive through the narrow alleyways.  

Whenever medical teams tried to reach the entrances to the camp, they were threatened by soldiers that they would shoot them, Ghoneimi said.

“If we receive any call regarding emergency cases inside the camp, the paramedics try to deal with them on the field, and if they require transportation to the hospital, the ambulance tries to reach it via rugged dirt roads that take longer to pass.”

Ghoneimi told MEE the bombardment of the camp was the "most violent aerial bombardment" he had experienced.

“One of the martyrs was without a skull, shoulders or brain as if he had melted during the bombing," he said