in the occupied West Bank, the fear of Palestinian refugees in the face of Israeli raids

In the Tulkarem camp, Israeli military operations are increasing. The Israeli army, for example, launched an operation in recent days, during which “at least eight terrorists” were killed and “fifteen wanted people” arrested.

Living in the West Bank, fear in my stomach. On the 107th day of war, the Israeli army led fierce battles against Palestinian Hamas on Monday January 22 in the Khan Younes sector, the epicenter in southern Gaza, despite calls for a pause in the increasing clashes. Hundreds of kilometers away, in the occupied West Bank, the situation is particularly tense: since the Hamas attack on October 7 and the outbreak of war, the Israeli army has increased raids there.

These incursions of soldiers, in the Tulkarem camp in particular, to flush out “terrorists” according to the Israeli army, are accompanied by massive destruction and the death of numerous civilians.

Coming out of the neighboring house, still standing, an old man, a refugee in 1967, contemplates with these almost transparent blue eyes the hole and the pile of rubble which now stand in the place of his home and those of his four brothers.

“Four days ago a bulldozer came in and destroyed everything. Since then I have been homeless. And I know very well why: it’s to widen the street and facilitate the army’s movements in the camp.”

A resident of Tulkarem

at franceinfo

“Death to the terrorists”

All around, in the streets of this camp, which has become a real city where nearly ten thousand Palestinians live, younger men are clearing away and already reconnecting the electricity network. The library was gutted, the nursery destroyed. A sign “funded by the European Union” is half torn off there.

A little further down, Samir Jaber takes us into his house. We see bullet marks everywhere: on the door, in the wall. Here we see a Star of David near which is inscribed, in Hebrew, “Death to the terrorists“. Other victims do not have the profile of combatants: last week, a rescuer was shot dead, assures his father, while he was intervening to help the wounded in the middle of a military operation.

Abir Saadi receives us in her green and white living room, the portrait of her son.martyr“15-year-old sits above the table: he was killed by the Israeli army on October 19. He was going out to buy cigarettes for his father, she says. She says she is afraid today for her children, “because a house can be rebuilt. But in an instant I can lose a son forever“. Since October 7, more than 360 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army or Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.