Tag: Jenin

What Does Israel Want in The West Bank?

Northern West Bank By Diana Khwaelid

Israel is carrying out massive military operations to displace residents of camps in the northern West Bank, unprecedented since the Second Intifada. Since the seventh of October, Israeli attacks on West Bank cities, especially in the north, have not stopped. We are talking about the cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, Tubas, Nablus and Qalqilya.

Destruction of Palestinian refugee camps
At the end of January, Israel carried out a large scale military operation in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, which has lasted for ten days so far.

Its military operations are based in the Jenin refugee camp, in various city areas, and in some nearby villages. The Jenin camp has become an unfit place for human habitation, dozens of Palestinian houses have been destroyed and bombed, and the neighborhoods and streets of the camp have already been destroyed. Water, electricity pipes and infrastructure have been destroyed.

A residential block and an entire neighbourhood have been completely destroyed due to aerial bombardment.

Did you succeed in transforming the Jenin camp like Jabalia camp in Gaza?
This is what senior Israeli officials promised before the start of the recent military operation in the West Bank, especially in the Northern West Bank. The Israeli occupation continues its aggression on Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas, murdering 29 martyrs, dozens of injuries, arrests, demolition of houses and forced displacement. Amid widespread destruction of property and infrastructure.

JENIN
Jenin, for the fifteenth day in a row, the occupation continues its aggression against the Jenin city and its camp, which has so far resulted in 25 martyrs, dozens of injuries, arrests, and the demolition of dozens of houses, amid a large displacement process that affected 15 thousand citizens.

Yesterday morning, the occupation army forced residents of the buildings supervising the Jenin camp to evacuate, as several military vehicles were stationed near the buildings demanding evacuation.

Residential buildings and apartments are being emptied, forcibly displacing citizens.

The occupation forces in the Jenin camp simultaneously blew up about 20 buildings in the eastern side of the camp, after booby trapping them, which caused damage to some sections of the Jenin government hospital, without injuries being recorded. The occupation continues to push reinforcements to the city of Jenin camp from the Jalama military checkpoint, while its

bulldozers continue to destroy houses in the merge lane, with approximately 15 thousand people now displaced from the Jenin camp the target neighborhood, distributed throughout 39 local community bodies in the Jenin governorate and its towns.

Transfer of an injured person in Tulkarem

TULKAREM
For the ninth day in a row, the occupation continues its aggression against the city of Tulkarm and its camp, resulting in the martyrdom of four citizens, amidst extremely difficult humanitarian conditions.

The occupation forces are still pushing more of their vehicles into the city and its camp from the “tasnouz” military camp west of Tulkarm, and deploying infantry patrols in large numbers in the streets, neighborhoods, and the center of the vegetable market, combing and searching between houses and alleys and harassing citizens.

These forces also continue to besiege the martyr Thabit Thabit government and specialized hospitals, obstruct the work of ambulances and their medical crews, and subject them to inspection and field investigation, while they have taken military barracks and places for snipers from the buildings surrounding them.

The occupation forces escalated their violations against citizens in the city and its camp through a series of attacks, which included raiding houses, forcing their owners to flee, vandalizing and

stealing their contents, blowing up and destroying a number of them, in addition to restricting movement, while seizing commercial and residential buildings and turning them into military barracks and places for snipers.

In Tulkarem camp, the occupation forces continue to deploy large numbers of infantry soldiers in all its neighborhoods and alleys, raid houses, force residents to leave them, seize high buildings and turn them into sniper platforms and shoot at Citizens, which led to the injury of a citizen (40 years), shot by an occupation soldiers sniper stationed inside one of these buildings.

Tulkarem camp is living amid this unprecedented continuous escalation, amid difficult humanitarian conditions, after the occupation bulldozers completely and partially destroyed houses and shops, blowing up a number of them and burning others, coinciding with the destruction of infrastructure, which led to the interruption of water, electricity, communications and the internet, making it difficult for specialized crews from the municipality, and others, to repair them because the occupation prevented them from entering the camp. The situation of citizens who are still in their homes ~ the elderly, the sick, women and children has also been aggravated by the acute shortage of food, medical, drinking water, and infant formula.

TUBAS
For the third day in a row, the occupation is besieging AL- FARA’ camp and the town of Tamoun south of Tubas, amid arrests, bulldozing of infrastructure and forcing citizens to flee.

Since the beginning of the storming, Israeli Occupation Forces forces have bulldozed the roads and infrastructure leading to the AL-FARA’ camp, in addition to closing all entrances to it with earthen berms and raiding houses in the vicinity of the camp, forcing its residents to be displaced, and turning them into military barracks.

Israeli Occupation Forces also raided the homes of citizens on the outskirts of the town of Tamun, forcibly displacing residents, giving them orders not to return within ten days.

Water pipelines have been destroyed between the Town of Tamun and the village of Atouf, in addition to closing of the road connecting the two areas with earthen berms.

The occupation continues to push military reinforcements to Tamun and the AL-FARA’ camp, while the Israeli reconnaissance aircraft continues to fly intensively in the skies of the governorate.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health : the percentage of Palestinian martyrs in the West Bank since the beginning of

this year 2025 has reached 70 martyrs.

38 martyrs in Jenin
15 martyrs in Tubas
5 martyrs in Tulkarem
3 martyrs in Hebron
2 martyrs in Bethlehem
6 martyrs in Nablus
1 martyr in Jerusalem
10 of them are children, 2 of them are women, 2 of them are elderly people.

Twelve martyrs in Jenin camp in less than 20 hours

Jenin — West Bank – By Diana Khwaelid

The Israeli occupation forces are seriously escalating in the West Bank, in particular in its Northern regions. In the Jenin camp, an Israeli aerial bombardment targeted six Palestinians including three brothers, and a child no older than 15.

On the evening of Tuesday, January 14th, an Israeli military aircraft carried out an aerial bombardment in the center of the Jenin camp in the northern West Bank, killing six Palestinians and wounding at least eight more with moderate injuries. At the time of the bombing, the residents of the camp described a state of horror and fear. One Palestinian eyewitness said: “We saw the bodies of Palestinians lying on the ground among the dead and wounded, with bare blood everywhere.”

A Palestinian woman is walking through a street, supported by a man and a woman holding her by the arms and a few other people around. Her hijab is stained with blood. — The mother of the three martyred brothers grieves her sons

In contradiction with their own communications, Israel is continuously targeting Palestinian civilians in the North of the West Bank — regardless of age, gender, background. The situation of escalating campaigns of military operations in the northern West Bank mirrors the war crimes we continue to witness in Gaza.

A Palestinian woman in the middle of a crowd is closing her eyes and holding her hand to her mouth in pain. — Farewell to the martyrs

The situation in the camp is unstable due to the recent Israeli military incursions, including the destruction and bulldozing of streets and infrastructure, the destruction of houses and shops, and the cutting of electricity and water lines. Dozens of Palestinian families have left the camp, especially those who have lost their homes. Many still remain, rejecting the idea of abandoning and living away from their place of origin.

In a street, two Palestinian men are standing looking at the ground, on which a red stain is visible amongst water sprayed to clean. — Two men contemplate the the site of the airstrike where martyrs were killed

According to residents, the bombing happened a few meters away from the house of the three brothers who were killed, who are from the Abu Al-Hijaa family, one of the most well-known and largest families in the camp. They were sitting near their house alongside friends and neighbours.

The martyrs’ names are 15-year-old Mahmoud Gharbiya, 28-year-old Mo’min Abu al-Hijaa, 27-year-old Amir Abu al-Hijaa, 34-year-old Hossam Qanouh, 23-year-old Ibrahim Qaneri, and 33-year-old Baha Abu al-Hijaa.

A crowd of Palestinian men around six bodies wrapped in Palestinian flags carried high on stretchers at the centre of the crowd. Some men are filming on their phones, many others raise their hand with a peace sign. — A crowd assembles at the funeral of the six Tuesday martyrs.

Before their blood could dry in the streets of Jenin, on Wednesday evening, January 15th, the Israeli military committed another crime in the Al- Dumaj Neighborhood of the camp, in which six more Palestinians were killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

A man, a woman and a boy are standing by a wall, looking defeated. The woman is leaning on the wall, the man is holding his head in his hands. — A Palestinian family in pain residing in the Jenin camp

The number of martyrs in the West Bank since October 7 has reached 858, including 237 in Jenin. The city of Jenin has the highest number of martyrs in the West Bank.

Torture as a daily routine: a witness from Israeli prisons

His face is hollowed out, white skin pulled over prominent cheekbones. The eyes, tired but wide open, never stop. Abed just got out of Al-Naqab prison in southern Israel five days ago. He still can’t believe it.

“I lost 60 kilos in less than a year.” He shows a giant picture of himself hanging in the lobby: a fleshy, muscular man, smiling with a small child in his arms. “That’s my daughter, that’s me. It’s been a year.” The man in front of me looks like the specter of the hanging image. Even the little girl zomping behind us doesn’t seem to recognize him: when her father calls her name, she throws herself into her cousin’s arms, almost frightened. “My daughter when she first saw me was hiding, calling me uncle. It was so sad.”

Abed is 28 years old and was a baker by trade. They arrested him last December in a night raid where the Israeli military stormed his home by breaking down his door, smashing several pieces of furniture and windows. And they took him away. He would never hear from his family or have any contact with the outside world again until November 30, 2024.

We are at his home in the refugee camp in Jenin, perhaps the city most affected by Israeli attacks in the West Bank over the past year. To get there, one has to travel several roads flooded with mud and water, with a panoramic view of piles of debris and damaged or demolished houses. Indeed, the destruction by Tel Aviv’s D9s and bulldozers has spared no infrastructure in the camp, which is considered by Israel to be one of the strongholds of resistance in the West Bank: every road, as well as the water and electricity systems, have been systematically and methodically devastated.

“They arrested me only because I am Palestinian,” begins the account of Abed, who is at pains to emphasize that he was not linked to any party and was not part of the resistance. “The conditions under which they kept us were terrible. I don’t know if I will be able to talk about what I experienced… even animals are not kept like that.” But then, he is a river of words.

“They gave me shampoo six times in a year,” he recounts. “We could shower, but they wouldn’t give us anything to wash with.” Before October 7, life for Palestinians in prison was different. Then the detainees suffered Israel’s revenge on their skin. “We became numbers. They called us by number all the time.” He shows us, it was written in marker on his ID card. It must have been seven to eight digits; reading it feels like going back to moments in history that one hoped had been surpassed. “The first day they gave me a plastic plate, spoon and fork, the disposable kind. I had to use it for a year.” He smiles. “It’s crazy, but when I went out, I wanted to take them with me. I don’t know how to use the real ones anymore.”

There were 14 of them living in a cell that was made for nine people. They slept without mattresses, in beds as hard as stones or on the floor, cramped together to keep warm. “We didn’t have enough clothes, and they didn’t give us anything to cover ourselves. People would make socks by cutting pieces from the blankets.” Abed continued, “When they brought us food, it was not enough for human beings. It was not enough to survive… I lost 60 kg, but if my situation in prison was not so good, the condition of many others was worse.”

News from outside the prison came only when new inmates arrived. There was no contact with the outside world. “Since October 7, they took everything away: no TV, no books, no newspapers, no visits, no letters to family members, no contact with the lawyer.” Not even the hearings were an opportunity to meet the lawyer, or a friendly face. “There was no real court, it was a room, they moved everything online.” He adds: “Every time they moved us from the cell to that room, or somewhere else, we knew we would not come back healthy.” Beatings were the norm, and they could also come during the many searches or counts they did of inmates in cells.

“I have scabies. Almost everyone in prison has scabies, at least 90 percent… I had it all over my body… it was not normal. They didn’t give us medicine. It was torture.” He then talks about a weird episode. “Once they finally sent me to the ‘doctor’ – in prison there was no hospital, and anyway they didn’t give you anything… there was a group of people who were not Israelis, they were international. I asked one of these ‘doctors’ where he was from, he told me [he was] French; he didn’t help me. Sometimes I think they were doing tests on us, like we were animals.”

He repeats several times, “I just want to be considered a human being, it doesn’t matter that I am Palestinian, I am a human being.”

He shows us video of when he was released from prison a few days ago. When he was released, he was greeted by a crowd of his family and friends, where he hugged his mother and he cried. “For a year, I never cried. But as soon as I saw my mother, I cried,” he recounts. “My mother was sick. I could never write to her. But whenever I had a chance to see the moon from my cell, I sent her a message through the moon…”

At least 47 inmates have died in Israeli prisons since Oct. 7 due to torture or lack of treatment by Israel. I ask him if he has witnessed such incidents. He seethes. “One of these 47 was in my cell,” he says. “They brought him, who was already beaten to a pulp; he was injured. They had moved him there. Then they beat him again. At night they came in and counted us, they did that a lot. It was winter, it was cold. He was still lying on the ground, because he was sick, he couldn’t get up. I remember seeing blood coming out of his chest, I think he had internal bleeding but also external bleeding, he was bleeding. The police picked him up and carried him out of the cell, I could see him. They left him there in the open for hours and hours. It took him six hours to die. In front of my eyes.” They wanted to kill him, he says between the lines. He was politicized, from the Hamas party. He would not give his name.

He is afraid; he does not want to go back to prison. “I never want to live that condition of life again,” he says. The state of Israel in fact does not forget. Abed points us to Karim, a young boy of perhaps 15 who has been sitting by his side since the start of the chat. “Every time they raid here in the camp, the military enters his house and beats his whole family. This is because a member of his family in the past had relations with the resistance… Even though he is dead, they continue to take revenge and punish the whole family. They beat everyone.”

“Even if we believe in peace, where is the peace? I want peace. Israel does not want peace.”

He asks if he can leave a message for the rest of the world. He takes my notebook and writes in large Arabic characters, underlining the wording several times:

ALL PALESTINIANS LOVE LIFE.

What is Happening in the Northern West Bank?

4 September 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Northern West Bank

By Diana Khwaelid

The radical Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has renewed his incitement to impose collective punishment on citizens in the occupied West Bank, including the killing of detainees in occupation prisons.

In the early hours of August 28, 2024, Israel announced the start of a large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank, specifically targeting three cities and their refugee camps: Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas. Israel has named this operation “The Summer Camps,” while the resistance factions in the West Bank, particularly the Jerusalem Brigades, have called it “The Terror of the Camps”. This Israeli operation is the largest since the “Protective Fence” operation in 2002. According to the *Yedioth Ahronoth* newspaper, a full military squad was mobilized after several weeks of preparation. Hebrew Channel 14 confirmed that the army had deployed thousands of soldiers from various special units, including the use of military helicopters and heavy weapons.

The operation began with a simultaneous Israeli incursion into the three cities, using huge bulldozers and air cover. The Israeli occupation forces closed all roads leading to the cities of Tulkarm and Jenin, but encountered armed resistance from fighters who attempted to prevent further advancement. In response to the armed clashes on the ground, Israel resorted to airstrikes, bombing three different locations: the Far’a refugee camp (Tubas), the Nour Shams refugee camp (Tulkarm), and a site near the Jenin refugee camp. These bombings killed several resistance fighters and wounded others. The first day ended with the assassination of nine resistance fighters, most of them from the Al-Quds Brigades and the Al-Qassam Brigades, and the wounding of an Israeli soldier amid massive destruction to the infrastructure of several targeted cities.

A week ago, the occupation forces began a large-scale operation in the northern West Bank under the pretext of dismantling resistance cells. Since then, resistance fighters have been confronting them with explosive devices and gunfire, resulting in the deaths and injuries of several Israeli soldiers.

The operation has so far resulted in the martyrdom of 33 Palestinians and the injury of 130 others, causing significant destruction to the infrastructure in the cities and camps of Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, and Tubas. The Israeli occupation forces have not only liquidated several resisters in the Nur Shams refugee camp, northeast of Tulkarm, Jenin Camp, Tubas, and Nablus but also renewed their incursion into the city of Tulkarm on the evening of Monday, September 2. This time, they stationed themselves in the Tulkarm refugee camp, where the military operation is still ongoing.

The residents of the camps in the northern West Bank, particularly in the Tulkarm and Jenin camps, are experiencing a state of fear and terror. On Monday evening, Israeli occupation snipers targeted a civilian and his 15-year-old son. The father was transferred to the hospital, but the child died while attempting to leave the camp.

Israeli special forces also surrounded a Palestinian house in the village of Dhnaba, east of Tulkarm, and demanded the surrender of two Palestinian youths. According to eyewitnesses, they used a Palestinian child, no older than 16, as a human shield. The forces subsequently killed the two Palestinians, seized their bodies, and confiscated their private vehicle.

The Israeli occupation forces are also obstructing the movement of medical crews in the northern West Bank cities, particularly Tulkarm and Jenin, preventing them from entering the camps, transporting the injured, and assisting Palestinian patients in humanitarian cases.

The house that was surrounded and two Palestinians were executed in the village of Dhnabu

Jenin: The Other Gaza

17 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jenin

On Wednesday, December 13, I received a message from a fellow actress of the Freedom Theatre informing me that the occupation forces had arrested without charge Mustafa Sheta, theatre director and general manager, Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director, as well as Jamal Abu Joas, acting coach. The arrests took place in a military raid carried out by the occupation forces in the city of Jenin, with their main target being the refugee camp where the headquarters of the Freedom Theatre is located.

Mustafa Sheta was arrested at his home in the city of Jenin, where they handcuffed him and took him, mercilessly, in front of his children. They sat the whole family in the living room and when they identified Mustafa they asked him, “Have you done anything?” To which Mustafa replied, “I have not done anything.” Still, the occupation forces took him away and to this day nothing is known about him.

Mustafa Sheta, Freedom Theater Director, arrested and still imprisoned by IOF. Credit: The Freedom Theatre

On the night of December 12, 2023, Tobasi heard soldiers knocking on neighbors’ doors. He got dressed, put on a winter jacket and got ready because he was worried about them coming to his home.

The next morning, shortly after 9 a.m., the Israelis began attacking and looting the Freedom Theatre. They fired from inside the theatre, destroying the offices and knocking down a wall. Tobasi’s house is directly across from the Freedom Theatre.

Around 11:30 a.m., still fully dressed and still hearing disturbances, he came out and said, “Why are you making all this noise? You are terrorizing children.”

The Israeli army took Tobasi and beat him. They made him take off his jacket and threw him on the ground in the street, in the cold and rain.

Shouting at Tobasi that he should stay there, the army entered his house and broke everything. They smashed his computer screen, his iPad, and destroyed everything they could, even taking the plants and throwing them on the ground.

After breaking everything in the house, the Israeli army took a towel from the house and blindfolded Tobasi. They then went to look for Mohammed, Tobasi’s brother.

Occupation forces handcuffed them both and took them away. They did not have enough clothing for the cold and winter weather.

Jamal Abu Joas has also been captured by the Israeli army.

Jamal recently graduated from the Freedom Theatre School of Performing Arts, where he is now an acting coach and also a freelance photographer.

The army invaded his house, and searched and took everything, including Jamal’s phone and camera. The soldiers have beaten him brutally.

On Thursday afternoon we decided to go to the city of Jenin in support and solidarity for my colleagues and friends from the Freedom Theatre and to document what had happened.

We arrived around two in the afternoon in the city of Jenin, and all the shops were closed. Some boys helped us get closer to the entrance of the refugee camp. Between the sounds of detonations of live ammunition and the smell of teargas we advanced, but only halfway. On the way we had to stop, there was an ambulance and a barricade that blocked the way.

Further up, at the entrance to the refugee camp, there was a convoy of the Israeli army. Journalists were gathered on the edge of the street at the entrance of a hospital and residential house. We waited for about 10 minutes; the sound of the live fire grew louder. But then the occupation forces withdrew and we were able to enter.

We entered through a side street towards the central square of the camp. From the first moment we could see the level of destruction that had been undertaken. The streets were completely destroyed, the doors of the houses broken, the shops destroyed, the water was running all over the place. What were once streets were now muddy fields because the army had also broken the pipes to destroy the water infrastructure. The level of destruction was incalculable.

We arrived at the central square which was unrecognizable. Wherever one turned there was graffiti of the Star of David painted on walls.

All the surroundings were damaged. We joined with local community members trying to clean a little and see how they could repair what the occupation forces had destroyed. We continued walking towards the theatre. My eyes could not recognize where I was. This place that I walked so many times could not be connected with my memories. The firefighters were putting out a fire in a house that still seemed to be burning We could feel the heat coming off as we passed by.

When we arrived outside the theatre, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The place that I saw so full of life the last time I was there was covered by a spectral silence. The warehouse, the theatre room, the offices, everything had been destroyed. They threw everything everywhere. They broke everything: books, pictures, doors, computers, screens, glass. And again, the Star of David was everywhere one looked. They did this as an exercise in intimidation, cruelty and power. This was not only an attack on life but also an attack on freedom. The occupation forces want to end any type of resistance.

I went out to the parking lot again and see a man outside the theatre room. When he turns to me, it takes me a moment to recognize him. He is Tobasi. They have released him. I hug him tightly. I feel relieved to see him again. He asks me how I am. “Confused,” I respond, “I think it’s absurd for me to ask you.” But he nevertheless responded, “Alhamdulillah.”

It is evident that they have hurt him, that they tortured him, that they beat him. It is difficult for him to walk. We entered the office at a slow but steady pace. “They destroyed everything,” he says. When we are in one of the offices outside we hear the noise of a car engine, he turns around and asks me, “Is it a jeep?” No, it’s just a car, but we have to leave. We offer to help clean, but he says, “Later, now it’s not safe. They can come back at any time.

Already on the street outside the theatre, we say goodbye. I told him to write to me, that I will return. He said, “Yes, but in a couple of days, now it is not safe.” I told him that I am here for him, for Mustafa and for the Freedom Theatre. I initially came to do an artistic residency with them, which was cut short by the events that arose after October 7. “Take care of yourself, be careful, stay safe,” he said.

IOF damaged the inside of the Freedom Theatre. Credit: ISM

We continued walking deeper into the camp, reaffirming with our eyes the horror and devastation.

We reached the roundabout where the great monument of the map of Palestine was located, which was knocked down. We advanced a little further and the children around us run and shout at us “Jeish Jeish,” the occupation forces had returned. Explosions were heard and the sound of the siren announcing a new incursion. We didn’t have much time to stop and think of what to do, to either take refuge in the theatre or continue to try to reach the service station to Ramallah. We decided to continue. A Palestinian in a car offered us a ride to the service station; walking wasn’t safe. We tried to insist on giving him money but he more insistently refused. At the service station we said goodbye.

The service advanced towards Ramallah, leaving behind the unprecedented devastation. My memories want to find a place in this reality. It is like trying to put together a puzzle from which several pieces have been stolen.

The next morning Tobasi gives an interview in which he says the attack on the refugee camp has been the most devastating, the most violent since 2002, referring to the second intifada. Jenin is now in some ways the other Gaza.