West Bank in shock after three days of Israeli raid

A press release from the Israeli army specifies that it was an operation which allowed “the discovery of laboratories, tunnels and explosives factories”. Twelve Palestinians were killed, and the camp’s infrastructure was largely destroyed.

The roads of the Jenin refugee camp, in the north of the occupied West Bank, look like trenches, muddy. They were completely destroyed by Israeli bulldozers. At the entrance to the camp, in the front of three small shops, stars of David spray painted on the front. “For three days they opened all these stores. They drew these signs and wrote ‘October 7’. They destroyed my store, you see ?shows us a Palestinian. They destroyed what was inside : cameras, televisions… And we were cloistered at home, without bread, without milk for the children, for three days.”

Three days during which the Israeli army carried out a raid on Jenin and its refugee camp. An army press release specifies that it was an operation which allowed “the discovery of laboratories, tunnels and explosives factories”. But during this incursion, twelve Palestinians were killed, and the camp’s infrastructure was destroyed. For many residents, it is another collective punishment.

The time has now come to acknowledge the damage, and to mourn. “There, there is a martyr arriving”points out the same resident, pointing to a procession. Men carry a lifeless body, killed during the raid. Head to the mosque for the funeral. In homes, women mourn a son, a brother, a nephew. For three days, it was horror.

“The army attacks ambulances”

At the Jenin government hospital, Samah, a Palestinian Red Crescent volunteer, says that even ambulances and the injured could not be taken care of. “My mission was to try to evacuate people to the hospital. At one point, I was at a roundabout near the refugee camp. There were injured people and we saw the sniper lasers on us. Then they came out and started attacking us.”testifies Samah.

“They were shooting at everyone. Even the birds that were flying, if they could, they would have shot.”

Samah, Palestinian Red Crescent volunteer

at franceinfo

“At the moment, the army is increasingly around hospitals, and is attacking ambulances, preventing them from circulating. This was the case at the Ibn Sina hospital and the government hospital”, says Samah again. In Jenin, all this leaves a feeling of déjà vu. Worse, that of revenge by Israeli soldiers since October 7. “But if people don’t even care about Gaza, then will they care about Jenin ?”confides, wearily, a young person in front of the hospital.