During a major Israeli military operation in Jenin in the northern West Bank, twelve Palestinians were killed, a hundred people were injured and one Israeli soldier was killed. If the army has since withdrawn, on the spot, the inhabitants lived two days of violence.
It was the most important military operation for several years in the West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967. Ambulances ring out in Jenin, in the north of the West Bank. And the funerals follow one another in tears and cries. Mohamed, a member of the Palestinian Red Crescent NGO, has been making interventions for 48 hours: “The situation is unbearable. Everyone is a potential target: children, women, the elderly. Everyone here is in danger. Even behind the walls of your home, you are not safe. shelter. The Israeli occupation army is ruthless.”
>> “They fired in all directions”: in Jenin, Palestinians bury their dead after an Israeli army raid
On Monday, July 3, the Israeli army invaded the city of Jenin and the refugee camp in a special operation aimed at destroying ” a terrorist infrastructure” And ” an operations center of a local armed group. ” We will not allow Jenin to become a haven for terrorism again“Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said from a military base. In response, Palestinian Islamic Jihad warned:” All options are on the table to hit the enemy.“The toll is heavy: this operation, which officially ended on Wednesday, left 12 dead and a hundred wounded on the Palestinian side. A Tsahal soldier died on Tuesday, shot, in the same camp.
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“We are at home, we will not move from here”
Balaclava on his head, Ayman, an 18-year-old Palestinian boy, says he ” defended” his city, showing cobblestones in his hands. Ridiculous weapons in the face of over-equipped soldiers. “We are at home, in Jenin. We will not move from here. We are resistance fighters. This city is Palestinian, and will remain so. They will not be able to break our determination. They can deploy their tanks, deploy all their arsenal military, firing rockets and missiles, it won’t change anything. We won’t leave this land, which is ours.”
“They are coming to attack our children”
In Jenin hospital, the wounded rub shoulders with the displaced. Women, men and children claim to have been forcibly driven from their homes by the Israeli army. The objective of this forced displacement of the population, according to them: to inspect all the houses, and to track down the Palestinian fighters.
In the rush, Najat was separated from the rest of her family. “My children, my family, they are scattered. They gave all the inhabitants two hours to evacuate the camp. They say that the Jenin camp is a terrorist region, but we are the victims. They are the ones who come to attack our children. They killed 16, 17 year old civilians.” In 2002, the Israeli army carried out a two-week operation in Jenin, leaving the city partially razed. Residents today face water and electricity cuts, says the town’s mayor, describing “a disastrous situation” on the spot.
This violence has aroused the concern of the international community, such as the Arab League, which met urgently on the subject on Tuesday, as well as of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. According to Volker Türk, violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank “must stop”. Since the start of 2023, at least 190 Palestinians, 26 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian have died in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to an AFP count.
In Jenin, with residents in shock: the report by Sami Boukhelifa
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