Israeli forces appear to withdraw from Jenin. But the operation may not be over

JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Israeli forces appeared to have withdrawn from three refugee camps in the occupied West Bank by Friday morning, after a more than weeklong military operation that left dozens dead and a trail of destruction.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed an American woman participating in an anti-settlement protest elsewhere in the West Bank, a witness said, The White House said it was “deeply distrubed” by the killing of the woman, identified as Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old who also held Turkish citizenship, and it called on Israel to investigate what happened.

The military's raids in the three refugee camps, involving hundreds of troops, have been the deadliest operation in the territory since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Overnight, Israeli armored personnel carriers were seen leaving the Jenin refugee camp from a checkpoint set up on one of the main roads. An Associated Press reporter inside the camp saw no evidence of any remaining troops inside as dawn broke Friday.

After days largely trapped in their homes, residents of the Jenin camp emerged to take stock of the damage from what officials said was the most destructive assault in years. Twisted rebar protruded from the concrete of collapsed buildings. Walls still standing were pockmarked by bullets and shrapnel.

During the operation, Israeli military officials said they were targeting militants in Jenin, Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camps in an attempt to curb recent attacks against Israeli civilians. They say such attacks have become more sophisticated and deadly since Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack on Israel nearly 11 months ago.

Troops were pulled out of the Tulkarem camp by Friday morning and had left Al-Faraa earlier, but in a statement the Israeli military suggested that the operation wasn't yet over.

“Israeli security forces are continuing to act in order to achieve the objectives of the counterterrorism operation,” the military said in a statement.

The operation was part of a major escalation of violence in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, including Israeli raids and Palestinian militant attacks as well as increased Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians and heavier crackdowns on Palestinian protests. More than 690 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.

Eygi was killed at a protest outside the northern West Bank town of Beita, on a hill overlooking a nearby settlement. A fellow protester, Johnathan Pollak, an Israeli, said clashes had broken out with Israeli troops firing tear gas and live ammunition at Palestinian protesters throwing stones. After the protesters retreated from the hill, he said he saw soldiers on a nearby rooftop open fire and Eygi fell bleeding to the ground. Doctors said she had been shot in the head.

The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an “instigator of violent activity” in the area of the protest.

The main focus of the military's raids over the past 10 days has been the Jenin refugee camp, a densely built district home to around 20,000 Palestinians where armed groups – including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but also other factions advocating “resistance” to Israel’s occupation – have a powerful presence.

Fighting in Jenin accounts for 21 of 39 Palestinians who local health officials say have been killed during the Israeli push in the West Bank. The military says most have been militants.

The fighting has had a devastating effect on Palestinian civilians living in Jenin.

Water and electric services have been cut, families have been confined to their homes and ambulances evacuating the wounded have been stopped on their way to nearby hospitals, as Israeli soldiers search for militants. Israeli military bulldozers ripped up roads.

Jenin’s governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, said that the damage to infrastructure was extensive.

“We had numerous invasions in the past, but this invasion is the most destructive,” he said. He said that ambulances came under fire during the assault, with one doctor wounded. The economy in the camp, where unemployment already ran at 21%, had been further wrecked, he said.

An Israeli military official speaking to the AP acknowledged the infrastructure destruction, but said it was because of militants’ strategy of planting explosives in civilian areas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

Tulkarem camp saw similar damage. In the quiet morning on Friday, resident Ziad Abu Tahoun looked with dismay at the torn-up streets and crumbled buildings.

“Look at the condition of the camp, the camp is in a deplorable state,” he said. “They’ve set us back 60 years.”

In southern Gaza, health workers resumed vaccinating children against polio, continuing the second phase of a large-scale immunization campaign. The first phase started Sunday in hospitals and medical locations in the central Gaza Strip. The final phase was to focus on the north, finishing Sept. 9. In all, WHO hopes to be able to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children in Gaza against polio.

The operation was undertaken as an urgent measure to prevent a large-scale polio outbreak after health officials confirmed the first reported polio case in 25 years, in a 10-month-old boy who is now paralyzed in the leg.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas and other militants staged a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people, primarily civilians. Hamas is believed to still be holding more than 100 hostages. Israeli authorities estimate about a third are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry reports that more than 94,000 more have been wounded since the start of the war.

Israel has been under increasing pressure from the United States and other allies to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on a demand that has emerged as a major sticking point in talks — continued Israeli control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow band along Gaza’s border with Egypt where Israel contends Hamas smuggles weapons into Gaza. Egypt and Hamas deny it.

Hamas has accused Israel of dragging out months of negotiations by issuing new demands, including for lasting Israeli control over both the Philadelphi corridor and a second corridor running across Gaza.

Hamas has offered to release all hostages in return for an end to the war, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants — broadly the terms called for under an outline for a deal put forward by U.S. President Joe Biden in July.

David Rising reported from Bangkok. Julia Frankel contributed to this story from Jerusalem.

Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinian men who were killed during an Israeli military operation, some draped in the Palestinian and the Islamic Jihad militant group flags, during their funeral in Jenin, West Bank, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Palestinians walk on a damaged road following an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Palestinians walk past a damaged building following an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A masked gunman fires in the air during the funeral of Palestinian men who were killed in an Israeli military operation, in Jenin, West Bank, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Mourners, some armed, carry the bodies of Palestinian men who were killed during an Israeli military operation, draped in the Islamic Jihad militant group flags, during their funeral in Jenin, West Bank, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Mourners watch the funeral of Palestinian men who were killed during an Israeli military operation, from a building damaged with bullet holes, in Jenin, West Bank, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinian men who were killed during an Israeli military operation, some draped in the Palestinian and the Islamic Jihad militant group flags, during their funeral in Jenin, West Bank, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinian men who were killed during an Israeli military operation, some draped in the Palestinian and the Islamic Jihad militant group flags, during their funeral in Jenin, West Bank, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Palestinians inspect the damage at a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital, hit by an Israeli bombardment on Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinian children wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are treated in a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Demonstrators marks their hands on a window of a bus stop with photos of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a protest demanding a cease-fire deal and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Demonstrators light flares as police on horses block their way during a protest demanding a cease-fire deal and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A man holds flags next to mock coffins covered in Israeli flags representing the 27 hostages whose bodies have been recovered from Gaza, during a rally demanding a cease-fire deal and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Palestinian refugees sit inside their partly destroyed house that was damaged during the Israeli army operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem, in Tulkarem, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Israeli military vehicles maneuver during an operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Palestinian refugees walk past the rubble of houses that were destroyed during the Israeli army operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem, in Tulkarem, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian man as others walk by with their hands up during a military operation in Jenin, West Bank, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

An explosion is seen during an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sunday was to be a day of relative rest for Donald Trump, a rare breather this deep into a presidential campaign. Aside from sounding off on social media, golf was on the agenda.

Then the Secret Service spotted the muzzle of a rifle sticking out of a fence in bushes at Trump's West Palm Beach golf club, and everything changed.

For the second time in just over two months, someone apparently tried to shoot Trump and came dangerously close to the former president in that effort — within 500 yards Sunday, law enforcement officials said. This time, the gunfire came from the Secret Service, before the suspect could get any shots off at his target.

The episode raised sharp questions about how to keep the former president safe -- not only while he is campaigning across the country, but while he spends time at his own clubs and properties.

Trump has had stepped-up security since the assassination attempt on him in July, when he was wounded in the ear during an attack that laid bare a series of Secret Service failures. When he has been at Trump Tower in New York, parked dump trucks have formed a wall outside the building. And at outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind bulletproof glass.

But unlike typical VIPs, who live in private residences with tall fences, Trump, while in Florida, resides at a club open to dues-paying members, and often spends his down time at his golf courses. And this a toxic era in the nation's politics.

“The threat level is high," Rafael Barros, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Miami field office, told reporters Sunday. “We live in danger times."

Sunday in the political world opened with Trump assailing a pop star on social media who had endorsed Kamala Harris — “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” — complaining about the post office and hitting the links. Running mate JD Vance riffed on TV about that thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory concerning immigrants and pets, refusing to disown it. Democrats were apoplectic.

All that was standard fare for the most tumultuous presidential campaign in anyone’s memory. But shortly before 2 p.m., the subject abruptly changed and this election was thrust ever deeper into unprecedented territory.

Trump and golf partner Steve Witkoff were on the fifth hole of the course and about to putt when they heard the “pop, pop, pop, pop," said Fox News host Sean Hannity, a close friend of the former president who spoke with him several times afterward as well as with Witkoff.

Moments later, Hannity said, a "fast cart” with steel reinforcement and other protection whisked Trump away.

After the Secret Service noticed the rifle and then the suspect, an agent fired on him but apparently missed.

Secret Service agents immediately used their bodies to shield Trump and moved him to the golf course’s clubhouse, where he remained until he went back to Mar-a-Lago about 15 minutes away, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and described it on condition of anonymity.

About an hour later, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office were investigating an unspecified “protective incident involving former President Donald Trump," adding he was safe.

The meaning was highly unclear. It could have been an unrelated shooting or disturbance near Trump, for all the country knew at first. "There were about 20 or more cop cars flying from nearby streets,” said Max Egusquiza, of Palm Beach, describing the emergency response he witnessed.

The Trump campaign issued a statement saying “President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity." Again, no word whether he was the intended target.

But it soon became known that the Secret Service had fired shots. And about an hour after that happened, Donald J. Trump Jr. posted on X that an AK-style rifle was discovered in the bushes, “per local law enforcement."

All of that was finally followed by an FBI statement saying it is investigating "what appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”

The suspect quickly vanished but law enforcement had managed to identify his vehicle.

Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound I-95, deploying to every exit between the Palm Beach County line to the south and St. Lucie County line to the north.

The suspect was apprehended within minutes of the FBI, Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office putting out a “very urgent BOLO” — or be-on-the-lookout alert — detailing the specific vehicle sought, license plate number and description of the driver.

“One of my road patrol units saw the vehicle, matched the tag and we set up on the vehicle,” Snyder said, “We pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody."

Snyder added: "He never asked, ‘What is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights — a lot going on. He never questioned it.”

With that, police arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Kaaawa, Hawaii, three law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The officials identified the suspect to AP but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

The suspect had left behind an AK-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks hanging on a fence with ceramic tile inside and a GoPro camera, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.

The sheriff said the suspect was 400 to 500 yards away from Trump hidden in shrubbery, while the former president played golf on a nearby hole.

“It was certainly an interesting day! ” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday night. He effusively thanked law enforcement for keeping him “SAFE.”

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Colleen Long, Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.

Police crime scene vehicles are seen at Trump International Golf Club after police closed off the area following the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

Laura Loomer uses her cell phone near Trump International Golf Club after police closed off the area following the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

Trump was on the links taking a breather from the campaign. Then the Secret Service saw a rifle

Trump was on the links taking a breather from the campaign. Then the Secret Service saw a rifle

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at Harry Reid International Airport to board a plane after a campaign trip, Saturday, Sept.14, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)