Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas vowed on Wednesday to rebuild the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, targeted in early July by a deadly Israeli military operation, during his first visit to the region in more than a decade. .
The Jenin camp is an “icon of resistance, struggle and defiance”, Mahmoud Abbas said in a brief speech, cheered by a crowd of supporters.
On July 3 and 4, the city of Jenin and the neighboring refugee camp were the scene of a 48-hour operation, the largest in years carried out by Israel in the West Bank, territory under Israeli occupation since 1967.
Twelve Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in the raid, which mobilized hundreds of soldiers, Israeli army drones and bulldozers, damaging dozens of homes, schools and streets.
“Our state will remain united […] and we will confront anyone who undermines its unity and security,” the Palestinian president added.
“We are now working on immediate reconstruction, to bring the country back to what it was, or even better,” he said before concluding his visit.
Several Arab countries have announced aid for the Jenin camp, after the Israeli operation in this region of the northern West Bank theoretically under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
His visit “is a strong and important message” which means “that he stands with the Palestinian people in their resistance to the occupation”, Abu Rumaila, secretary general of Fatah, Mahmoud’s party, told AFP. Abbas, in the camp.
Limited impact
Mr. Abbas’ last visit to the refugee camp dates back to December 2004, when he was a candidate for the Palestinian presidential election after the death of Yasser Arafat.
Mr. Abbas also visited the city of Jenin in 2012, but without visiting the camp which gradually escaped the control of the security forces of the Palestinian Authority in favor of local armed groups.
Hundreds of soldiers from the presidential guard were patrolling the streets of the camp on Wednesday and snipers had taken up positions on the roofs before the arrival of the Palestinian president, noted an AFP journalist.
Mahmoud Abbas took advantage of his visit to launch a veiled threat against the armed groups which “undermine” Palestinian security.
“There is only one authority and one security, whoever seeks to undermine its power and unity will suffer the consequences,” he said.
Refugee camp resident Alaa Washahi, 27, who spoke out after Abbas left, defended the Jenin Brigades armed group, saying they are “our pride and glory”. . “Their presence is part of our existence,” he added.
For Hugh Lovatt, a researcher at the European Council on International Relations, this visit aims to “show that the Palestinian Authority controls Jenin”.
But it will have a limited impact, “given the growing crisis of legitimacy it faces and the rise of Palestinian armed groups”, he predicts.
During the Israeli raid, the camp’s infrastructure was seriously damaged: eight kilometers of water pipes and three kilometers of sewers were destroyed, according to the United Nations.
Over 100 houses were damaged and a number of schools suffered light damage.
The Jenin camp, where approximately 18,000 Palestinians live in an area of 0.43 km2according to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), is one of the poorest and most densely populated in the West Bank.
It was founded in 1953 to accommodate some of the 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes when the State of Israel was established in 1948.
Over time, the tents were replaced by houses and the place now looks like a neighborhood in the city of Jenin.
It has become the symbol of the Palestinian struggle against Israel, which considers it “a hub of terrorism”.
The Israeli army regularly carries out raids in the northern West Bank, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups. This area has seen a recent wave of attacks on Israelis, as well as anti-Palestinian violence by Jewish settlers.