By Qais Abu Samra
JENIN, Palestine (AA) – Four Palestinian journalists were injured by Israeli army fire on Tuesday in the West Bank town of Kafr Dan, the Red Crescent Society said.
The society said two journalists were treated on the spot by its medics while two others were transferred to hospital.
Jaraah Khalaf, one of the injured journalists, said he and other reporters were covering an Israeli siege on a house in Kafr Dan near Jenin when they came under direct Israeli fire.
“We were all wearing vests that clearly had press identification labels in English (PRESS), and our vehicles carried the same insignia,” he told Anadolu.
Israeli army forces raided the town early Tuesday and besieged a house there, asking its occupants via loudspeakers to surrender, according to witnesses.
The house was later demolished by Israeli military bulldozers, while a child was injured and another Palestinian injured during the raid, according to the Health Ministry.
The Israeli army launched a major military operation in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, the largest in two decades, killing at least 30 people and causing massive destruction in the area.
The offensive came amid rising tensions in the occupied territory as Israel pressed ahead with its brutal onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.
At least 683 people have since been killed and over 5,700 others injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.
The escalation followed a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19 that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala