Jenin refugee camp residents defiant after lethal Israeli assault | Israel-Palestine battle Information

Jenin refugee camp, occupied West Financial institution – In Umm Yousif’s neighbourhood, almost each dwelling and automobile is riddled with bullet holes and damaged home windows after what residents describe as a “bloodbath”.

The kids right here will not be enjoying with marbles, however with the bullet casings strewn throughout the tight alleyways and adjoining rooftops following a lethal Israeli raid on Thursday within the Jenin refugee camp.

“What we lived by means of was not regular. There was no secure place,” Umm Yousif informed Al Jazeera the day after the assault, the bloodiest within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution in years.

“All of the glass in my home shattered. We had been all mendacity on the ground for 2 hours whereas there have been sounds of explosions above our heads,” stated the 47-year-old mom of 4 youngsters.

“We had been anticipating to die at any second.”

9 residents, together with two youngsters, had been killed through the Israeli assault that revived recollections from 2002 when one other large-scale raid and confrontations turned Jenin right into a image of Palestinian resistance. A tenth individual succumbed to his wounds on Sunday, whereas a number of others stay hospitalised after being wounded by reside ammunition.

5 of the ten Palestinians killed had been stated to be armed resistance fighters, whereas the 5 others had been unarmed civilians, in line with residents.

Through the raid, Israeli forces in a army automobile ran over and killed a 16-year-old little one, in line with a civil society group. A 61-year-old mom of six was additionally shot lifeless by means of her bed room window after she had simply completed praying.

Palestinian officers stated Israeli forces additionally shot at ambulance automobiles, stopping them from advancing to deal with the wounded, and fired tear gasoline in the direction of the Jenin public hospital that seeped into the kids’s ward, which Israeli officers denied was intentional.

‘Again to 2002’

The biggest Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in additional than 20 years came about simply earlier than 7am (05:00 GMT).

Israeli undercover forces dressed as civilians entered the camp in personal automobiles with Palestinian plate numbers, surveillance movies confirmed.

Shortly after, they had been backed up by dozens of troopers who snuck into the camp in a big Palestinian dairy firm truck.

In a joint operation with Israeli intelligence and police, the military surrounded a house within the camp’s Joret al-Dahab neighbourhood – the place three resistance fighters had been taking shelter – and launched a shock assault on it with anti-tank missiles and explosives.

The home was virtually fully destroyed and caught hearth. The boys inside it – Mohammad Soboh, 30, and brothers Nour al-Din and Mohammad Ghneim, 28 and 25 respectively – had been killed.

One other fighter, Izz al-Din Salahat, 21, was shot lifeless up the road from the home, as he was firing again at troopers.

Armed clashes ensued with Palestinian fighters for a number of hours earlier than the Israeli forces withdrew, abandoning them a path of blood and destruction – and a heavy toll on residents.

“In 2002, 50 Palestinians had been martyred over 13 days. On Thursday we had 9 martyrs in in the future,” 28-year-old resident Mahmoud Salawneh informed Al Jazeera.

“They put us in a state of horror. The military was taking pictures left and proper – everybody was a goal – from children to aged folks,” he stated.

The Israeli army justified the operation by claiming the raid was deliberate to detain Islamic Jihad fighters.

The Jenin refugee camp is dwelling to greater than 22,000 Palestinians who had been expelled from their unique houses in 1948 through the Nakba, or disaster – the ethnic cleaning of Palestine by Zionist militias to create the state of Israel.

On April 9, 2002, through the second mass Palestinian rebellion (Intifada), Israeli forces backed by fighter jets invaded the camp with greater than 150 armoured tanks and bulldozers. A battle with resistance fighters ensued over greater than 10 days, wherein at the very least 52 Palestinian civilians and fighters, and 23 Israeli troopers, had been killed.

Throughout that raid, the Israeli military destroyed greater than 400 houses and severely broken tons of of others, displacing over 1 / 4 of the inhabitants of the camp, which was later rebuilt by the United Nations.

“It took me again 20 years in the past – to after I was a child. This was just like the invasion,” 35-year-old Ahmad Mousa informed Al Jazeera of Thursday’s raid.

The partitions of his dwelling and his automobile are riddled with bullet holes.

“They had been taking pictures at unarmed folks, destroying property with tractors, Energa grenades,” stated Mousa, who shares the residence with 14 relations, together with seven youngsters.

One other resident, Diana Qreini who’s the mom of 5 youngsters, stated her dwelling was hit with bullets from three totally different instructions, piercing by means of her salon and her youngsters’s bedrooms.

“I don’t care about the home or myself. I care about my children. I’m simply glad my children are secure – they may have been killed,” the 35-year-old stated in a strained voice, trying to carry again her tears.

“Occupation troopers shot instantly at me by means of the window after I tried to maneuver the curtain,” she informed Al Jazeera.

Whereas insurance policies by the Palestinian Authority and Israel after the top of the second Intifada in 2005 largely led to the dismantling of armed resistance within the occupied West Financial institution, fighters in Jenin started re-organising within the wake of the Could 2021 widespread Palestinian rebellion, which started with protests in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem and noticed one other Israeli bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

The creation of the Jenin Brigades, a small group of cross-factional fighters targeted on deterring Israeli forces and defending the camp, led to related teams showing in a variety of cities, villages and refugee camps within the northern occupied West Financial institution, a phenomenon Israel has been trying to crush with near-daily raids and killings of Palestinians for greater than a 12 months.

Critical escalation

The impression of final week’s assault was felt not solely within the camp however throughout the 1967-occupied territories.

Officers from the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad group informed Al Jazeera they had been “ready for something” – hinting at the potential of yet one more struggle on the Gaza Strip, which has undergone 5 large-scale Israeli assaults up to now 15 years which have killed hundreds of Palestinians.

On Friday, a Palestinian man – 21-year-old Khairy Alqam – carried out a taking pictures assault that killed seven Israelis in an unlawful Jewish settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, constructed on lands taken from the Palestinian neighbourhoods of Beit Hanina, Hizma and al-Ram.

On Saturday, one other taking pictures came about within the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem, wherein two Israelis had been injured.

The assaults, which come after a 12 months of intensified Israeli army and settler violence that led to 2022 being the deadliest for Palestinians within the West Financial institution since 2005, set off a series of occasions which have pushed issues in the direction of a critical escalation.

Since Thursday, Israeli forces have killed three different Palestinians in al-Ram, Silwan and Hebron – together with a 17-year-old little one, and wounded tens of others with reside ammunition in confrontations throughout the West Financial institution.

Israeli settlers have additionally carried out dozens of assaults in opposition to Palestinians throughout occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Financial institution over the previous a number of days, together with taking pictures and injuring residents with reside ammunition and finishing up arson assaults in opposition to houses and vehicles.

Because the begin of January 2023, at the very least 35 Palestinians, together with eight youngsters, have been killed by the Israeli military and settlers. Twenty of them had been in and from the Jenin space.

The open-fire rules being employed by the Israeli military for greater than a 12 months and the plans by Israel’s new far-right authorities to arm extra Israelis within the wake of the Jerusalem shootings have introduced the scenario to a precipice.

It stays to be seen how issues will unfold – however on the Jenin refugee camp, residents stated they had been ready.

“There will likely be an invasion of the camp – there’s little question,” stated Salawneh.

“Israel desires to make resistance hated within the camp, however we’re all one hand right here. Our fighters are essentially the most honourable amongst us, and they’re prepared to stay combating,” he stated.

Alaa Abu Qandil, whose household owns the home the place the fighters had been taking shelter, informed Al Jazeera the destruction of his dwelling was “meaningless in the case of the dignity of the Palestinian folks, our sons, and our holy websites”.

“This occupation assaults everybody – whether or not civilians or fighters. Any human being will defend their home when it’s being attacked, and our houses have sanctity, similar to Palestine has sanctity.”