Middle East

As the Israeli military intensifies operations in the West Bank, Jenin becomes a ‘little Gaza’

Since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas, the Jenin refugee camp has seen dozens of Israeli military raids that have killed more than 70, including 23 children, according to the UN

A Palestinian schoolchild walks along a destroyed street at the Jenin refugee camp following an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Jenin. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/Shutterstock/EPA

Hannah McCarthy
Sat Feb 10 2024 - 06:00

After midnight, a convoy of Israeli armoured vehicles arrived at Jenin refugee camp in the northern tip of the occupied West Bank. Until dawn, the forces exchanged fire with members of the Jenin Brigades, an alliance of Palestinian militant factions that continue the impoverished camp’s long history of armed resistance against Israel’s military occupation. Seven arrests were made during the operation in Jenin while Ahmed Walid Khashan (18), who was released as part of Israel’s hostage-prisoner exchange with the militant group Hamas three months earlier, was detained in the nearby village of Bir al-Basha.

As the crackling of gunfire subsides and daylight breaks over Jenin, residents of the camp emerge to survey the now-recurring destruction that has given their neighbourhood the epithet “little Gaza”. Since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas on October 7th, the Jenin area has seen dozens of Israeli military raids that have killed more than 70, including 23 children, according to the UN.

“It feels like the raids never stop,” says Mahmoud Abu Shari (55) beside a building on Al-Karameh Street damaged by an Israeli drone attack. Nearby, a militant with a semi-automatic gun slung across his chest walks by a mechanic’s shop where a car has been crushed by a collapsed metal roof.

About a third of residents have not stayed in Jenin camp at night since the war began. Many of the elderly and young stay elsewhere in Jenin city or its suburbs, and are dropped off at the camp’s entrance by taxis in the morning. Older residents – some propped up by walking sticks – navigate the upturned roads destroyed by Israeli military bulldozers during the most recent raid. By a damaged roundabout, children carrying schoolbags walk lightly over piles of rubble and avoid pools of muddied brown water on their way to morning class. Mustafa Al-Saadi, a 64-year-old driving instructor, surveys the scene of mud and rubble outside his school before making his morning coffee in his office, where the driving test applications of his students killed by Israeli forces are on display.

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An Israeli military spokesperson says the destruction of the roads was a precaution against explosives that Palestinian militants could have lain under the road – a tactic that killed one Israeli soldier earlier this month. Workers clad in overalls from Unrwa, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, are already out clearing the debris and surveying manholes left exposed by the previous night’s assault. The destruction of the camp’s infrastructure has led to blackouts, flooding and openly flowing sewage. Shrines to slain fighters have also been vandalised and the faces of leading Palestinian writers Mahmoud Darwish and Ghassan Kanafani in a mural at the entrance of the Freedom Theatre are smeared with white paint.

Turkman’s storefront still bears a gold Star of David spray-painted by Israeli forces who vandalised and occupied the store during a three-day raid on the camp in December. The soldiers stole €500 worth of goods

“The main road into the camp has been destroyed five times in the last year,” says Diab Turkman (60), a retired teacher who now runs an electrical goods store. ”I’ll just sit here today,” he says in his shop. “No one’s buying anything at the moment – there’s no money.” Turkman’s storefront still bears a gold Star of David spray-painted by Israeli forces who he says vandalised and occupied the store during a three-day raid on the camp in December. Turkman says the soldiers stole €500 worth of goods including an electric heater and hot stove and deleted CCTV footage from the cameras installed in his store.

[ Israeli military intensifies strikes on Rafah in southern Gaza ]

During an earlier military raid, in November, Turkman says Israeli forces used his home, located outside of Jenin camp, as a staging post for snipers. Soldiers broke several doors and ordered his family into one room for eight hours. The Israeli military said it was not aware of these events but that it acts to identify and investigate “unusual cases” that deviate from what is expected of its soldiers and that “significant command measures will be taken against the soldiers involved”.

In a bright red uniform, a young man conducts a walkaround of Jenin camp after the latest raid while carrying a large backpack filled with medical supplies. He’s part of a new volunteer team of mobile first aid responders providing basic medical treatment during Israeli raids. Despite a hospital with a fleet of ambulances in the camp, residents are routinely denied access to medical assistance during military operations, while first aid stations have also been targeted by drones.

Last week, a team of Israeli special forces disguised in wigs and hijabs entered Ibn Sina Hospital and shot dead three sleeping Palestinian men in the rehabilitation unit

Israeli armoured vehicles and snipers are normally positioned around Khalil Suleiman Hospital during raids, says Samuel Johann, a co-ordinator for Doctors Without Borders, the medical NGO which began operating at the hospital in Jenin camp a year ago as injuries inflicted during Israeli raids soared. Johann says: “We have witnessed episodes where the ambulances were trying to reach the hospital but didn’t manage because they were denied access [by the Israeli military].”

[ Netanyahu’s bind: Compromising in Gaza or holding on to power at home ]

The Israeli military says medical facilities in Jenin are being used “for planning terrorist activities.” Now, even those who reach a hospital are not immune from attack. Last week, a team of Israeli special forces disguised in wigs and hijabs entered Ibn Sina Hospital and shot dead three sleeping Palestinian men in the rehabilitation unit. The primary target was Muhammad Jalamneh (27) a Hamas commander visiting a partially paralysed member of Islamic Jihad who was also killed in the operation. The Israeli military did not provide evidence of the attack it said Jalamneh was planning, while Ibn Sina Hospital’s director Niji Nazzal said the hospital deserves protection from violence.

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