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(https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/28/west_bank_raids_mustafa_barghouti) At least nine Palestinians have been killed and 11 injured as the Israeli military launches its biggest operation in the occupied West Bank in close to two decades, with hundreds of troops, backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones, launching simultaneous raids on the northern cities of Jenin and Tulkarm. In Jenin, Israeli forces have surrounded the city, blocking exit and entry points and access to hospitals and ripping up infrastructure in the Jenin refugee camp. Israeli forces have also been closing down the main roads leading to Tulkarm and other cities. An Israeli military spokesman told a news conference the raids were the first stage of an even larger operation in the West Bank. As the raids got underway, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz called for the mass displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. He wrote on social media, quote, “We need to deal with the threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed. This is a war for everything and we must win it,” he said. Over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October, nearly 150 of them children, most of them during near-daily raids by the Israeli military. In an interview on Democracy Now!, Palestinian physician, activist and politician, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, said, “…their goal is very clear. It’s as the Israeli minister of foreign affairs said. It’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. This is a fascist Israeli government governed by fascists, like Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, whose goal and aim is to annex the West Bank, is to settle Israeli illegal settlers in Palestinian territory and displace the Palestinian population. They are trying to repeat the Nakba. They are trying to repeat the ethnic cleansing that took place in 1948.”