Israel Launches Largest West Bank Assault in 20 Years

Israeli troops conducted air and ground strikes against Palestinian militants in a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing at least 8 on Monday. 

The Details: The assault also reportedly left over 50 people injured and caused damage to nearby buildings. Headlines often cited the operation as the largest in the West Bank since 2002. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its “extensive counterterrorism effort in the area of the city of Jenin and the Jenin Camp” had targeted “terrorist infrastructure” and a “operational command center” for the Jenin Brigades, a group of Palestinian fighters blamed for several terror attacks. A spokesperson said the White House was “monitoring the situation closely” and supported “Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.”

Refugee Camp or Terrorism Hotspot? Some news coverage differed starkly in portraying the assault’s location; while Al Jazeera (Lean Left bias) called it a “refugee camp,” Fox News (Right bias) called it a “hotbed of Palestinian terrorist activity” involving “Iranian-backed militants.” Descriptions of the Jenin Brigades were similarly split; Al Jazeera simply called them “a unit comprised of fighters,” CNN (Lean Left bias) tied the “militants” to “Islamic Jihad,” and Fox News didn’t discuss them at all, simply referring to them as “militants” or “terrorists.” Some articles also differed on calling the West Bank “occupied.”