RAMALLAH: The office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas denounced an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank as 鈥渆thnic cleansing鈥� on Monday, with the health ministry saying Israeli forces killed 70 people in the territory this year.
In a statement, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency 鈥渃ondemned the occupation authorities鈥� expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing.鈥�
Later the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said there had been 鈥�70 martyrs in the West Bank since the beginning of this year,鈥� with 10 children, one woman and two elderly people among the dead.
The ministry confirmed to AFP they were 鈥渒illed by the Israeli occupation.鈥�
The figures showed 38 people killed in Jenin and 15 in Tubas in the north of the West Bank. One was killed in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, it added.
The Israeli military launched a major offensive in the West Bank on January 21 aimed at rooting out Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area, which has long been a hotbed of militancy.
鈥淲e demand the intervention of the US administration before it is too late, to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against our people and our land,鈥� Rudeineh told the Palestinian official news agency WAFA in a statement coinciding with a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
On Sunday, the army said it had killed more than 50 鈥渢errorists鈥� during the operation that began on January 21 and in air strikes the preceding week.
Netanyahu is visiting Washington, where he is expected to begin talks on a second phase of Israel鈥檚 truce with Hamas in Gaza on Monday.
The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.