​​​​​​Photo shows a Palestinian house demolished during an air raid by Israeli aircraft on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, on July 3, 2023. (via Shehab news agency)

Ramallah, July 3 (RHC)-- Israeli aircraft and ground forces have conducted a nighttime raid on the city of Jenin and its refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, killing at least nine Palestinians and injuring dozens, some of them in critical condition.

According to Palestinian Health Ministry, one of the Palestinian youths killed in Israel's early Monday raid has been identified as 21-year-old Samih Abu al-Wafa.  They were fatally shot after Israeli aircraft targeted a house in the center of the Jenin refugee camp with several missiles.

According to eyewitnesses, after Israeli aircraft launched a series of air raids on the Jenin refugee camp, dozens of the regime's military vehicles stormed the camp, following which armed clashes broke out between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli forces.

Palestinian media said Israeli forces stormed the camp from two directions, while resistance fighters targeted their vehicles with homemade explosive devices.  In addition to the house targeted in the center of the Jenin refugee camp, Israeli aircraft bombed several other locations across the camp, causing injuries among its residents.

As the aerial raid on the camp continued, a large number of Israeli forces, accompanied by military bulldozers and supported by Apache helicopters and reconnaissance planes, stormed the city of Jenin.

"There is bombing from the air and an invasion from the ground," Mahmoud al-Saadi, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin, was quoted by AFP as saying, adding: "Several houses and sites have been bombed....smoke is rising from everywhere."

Israel's Kan television channel claimed the decision to launch the military operation in Jenin was taken about two weeks ago, but it was postponed until the end of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.  Various Palestinian resistance movements were quick to react to the occupying regime's nocturnal raid on Jenin.

The Islamic Jihad, which is headquartered in the besieged Gaza Strip, issued a statement, condemning the raid.  The Islamic Jihad said Jenin will not surrender "and our fighters are determined to confront the Zionist enemy and fight regardless of the sacrifices they may have to make."

The movement said the Zionist enemy bears full responsibility for the consequences of this aggression, adding that Israel will fail to achieve its objectives while Jenin will remain a symbol of steadfastness.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), for its part, slammed the Israeli savagery, saying: "The Zionist aggression against Jenin and the crimes of the occupation will only strengthen our people's determination and steadfastness to continue the resistance."  "We call on our people in all the neighboring villages and towns to unite with the people of Jenin to repel this terrorist aggression," it added.

Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement, said the Israeli onslaught against Jenin will not achieve its goals and the Zionist enemy will fail.  He added that Israel's fascist and extremist cabinet, headed by the its criminal prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, bears all responsibility for the consequences of tonight's aggression against Jenin.

The Hamas spokesman noted that the occupying regime "will not be able to win the battle against the resistance and our people, who will continue their struggle and fight until achieving their goals of freedom and independence."

Qassem added that Jenin, along with all other Palestinian cities, will continue their uprising despite the crimes of Israel, stressing that "the will of our people to stand firm is stronger than the military machine of the occupation."

Head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, also reacted to Israel's attack on Jenin, emphasizing that the blood shed in Jenin will determine the next stage of the fight against the regime.

Haniyeh said: “Our people know how to respond to this barbaric aggression in all places where they are present.”  He also called on all Palestinian people throughout the West Bank to stand by Jenin and defend its people in order to thwart the enemy's plans.