New outbreak of violence in the Middle East.

Israel carried out strikes on the Gaza Strip on Friday (January 27th) in response to rocket fire attributed to Hamas, after Israeli operations that killed ten Palestinians in the West Bank.

The Israeli army has announced that it has carried out at least two rounds of strikes against the Gaza Strip.

No casualties were reported.

The explosions particularly affected Gaza City, AFP journalists noted.

Hamas' military wing claimed to have retaliated with anti-aircraft batteries and surface-to-air missiles.

"Massacre"

On Thursday, nine Palestinians were killed in Jenin in a raid described by the Israeli army as an operation against Islamist activists in the refugee camp of this city in the north of the occupied West Bank.

The United Nations has not recorded such a high death toll in a single Israeli operation in the West Bank since it began counting the victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2005.

A tenth Palestinian was shot dead Thursday in Al-Ram, near Ramallah, the Israeli Health Ministry said.

Overall, this is the deadliest streak in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the outbreak of violence between the Israeli army and Islamic Jihad in Gaza - during which at least 49 Palestinians, including fighters but also civilians, including children, had perished in three days in August 2022.

The Palestinian Authority denounced "a massacre" and announced that it would end security cooperation with Israel, a first since 2020. The US State Department said it regretted this decision, judging it "very important that the parties maintain or even deepen their coordination safe".

"De-escalation"

The head of the American diplomacy, Anthony Blinken, must go Monday and Tuesday to Israel and the West Bank to insist, according to Washington, on "the urgent need to take de-escalation measures".

"Since the beginning of the year, we have continued to observe the high levels of violence and the negative trends that have characterized 2022", regretted the UN envoy for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, deeming it "essential to reduce tensions immediately.

IDF says raid in Jenin camp was a 'counter-terror operation' targeting members of the Islamic Jihad organization who Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said were planning an attack in Israel .

Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila accused the soldiers of firing tear gas inside the pediatric unit of the local government hospital, which the army denied.

The director of the hospital, Wissam Bakr, indicated that tear gas had been fired "in the perimeter" of his establishment.

"The gas reached the pediatric ward, posing a danger to the children, who were transferred to a safe place away from the clashes," he told AFP.

"No one fired tear gas voluntarily in a hospital (...) but the operation was taking place not far from the hospital and it is possible that tear gas entered through an open window," he told AFP. AFP an Israeli military spokesman.

The army had previously reported shooting several "terrorists".

No soldiers were injured, she added.

"Resistance is everywhere"

Israel "is not looking for escalation" but is preparing "for all scenarios", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to a statement.

Saudi diplomacy "strongly" denounced the Israeli "incursion", which Qatar described as "a continuation of heinous crimes" against "the defenseless Palestinian people".

Majeda Obeid, 61, was killed as she watched the clashes through her window in Jenin camp, her daughter Kefiyat told AFP.

"She was shot in the neck and collapsed against the wall and then on the floor," she said, in the family living room where blood covers the edge of a carpet.

"The resistance is everywhere and is ready for the next clash," Islamic Jihad spokesman Tariq Salmi said in a statement.

Shortly after midnight (22:00 GMT) on Thursday night, two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory, according to witnesses and local security sources.

The two shots, not immediately claimed, were intercepted by the air defense system, an Israeli army spokesman said.

With AFP

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