Car attack in Tel Aviv as Jenin offensive continues
Thousands of people were evacuated from the Jenin refugee camp as one of Israel's biggest West Bank military operations in years continued for a second day on Tuesday and a car-ramming in Tel Aviv underlined the risk of violence spreading. The operation, which the army said was aimed at destroying infrastructure and weapons of militant groups in the camp, was launched with a drone strike in the early hours of Monday, and over 1,000 troops have been deployed. At least 10 people have been killed, Palestinian officials said. "At this moment we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive activity in Jenin is not a one-time operation," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told journalists at a checkpoint near Jenin. The densely populated refugee camp, where some 14,000 people live in less than half a square kilometre, has been one of the focal points of a wave of violence that has swept the West Bank for more than a year, drawing growing international alarm. There was no indication of how much longer the operation might last after officials said earlier it could run for one or two days. But a car-ramming and stabbing attack in Israel's economic hub Tel Aviv, in which eight people were hurt, showed the risk it could lead to a further escalation as a previous raid on Jenin did last month. The Islamist Hamas group said the attacker, identified as 23 year-old Abdel-Wahab Khalyleh, who was shot dead at the scene, was a member. It said the attack was "an act of self-defence in the face of the ongoing Zionist massacre in Jenin". In Jenin, drones circulated overhead and sporadic gunfire and explosions sounded near the refugee camp, which fighters from militant groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah have fortified with a range of obstacles and watching posts to counter regular army raids. Power and water supplies remained cut off in the camp and in some areas of the city for a second day after bulldozers that ploughed up roads looking for improvised bombs cut power cables and a main water pipe. Israeli forces also uncovered several underground explosives caches, one concealed in a tunnel under a mosque. (Reuters)