Tag: Tulkarem Camp

Israeli Military Operation in Tulkarm Camp

23 August 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarm Camp

*Tulkarm – West Bank*
*22-Aug-2024*
*By Diana Khwaelid*

On the night of August 22, Israeli occupation forces carried out a massive military operation in the Tulkarm refugee camp that lasted 14 hours. Armed clashes took place between Palestinian resistance and Israeli forces in the camp.

**Siege of the camp**
Israeli occupation forces surrounded all the main entrances to the camp, blocking roads with various military vehicles. The siege lasted 14 hours, cutting off electricity, water, and internet. Israeli snipers were deployed on rooftops and surrounding buildings.

**Israeli military reinforcements**
Israeli forces continued to send reinforcements to Tulkarm throughout the operation, centered in the refugee camp. This led to heightened tensions between Palestinians in the camp and the surrounding city.

**Destruction of camp infrastructure**
A month and a half after the last military operation, during which roads and infrastructure were repaired by the municipality and Palestinian Civil Defense, Israeli forces again stormed the camp and destroyed the newly repaired infrastructure. Bulldozers began clearing the main entrance to the camp, known as the Madrasa corridor, and destroyed roads, power lines, water networks, and the sewage system. This destruction of infrastructure by Israeli forces is not the first, nor will it be the last.

**Obstruction of ambulances**
Israeli occupation forces obstructed Palestinian ambulances from entering the camp to transport the injured. Volunteer medical teams inside the camp risked their lives to assist the wounded, and they were the ones who transported the bodies of Palestinians hit by Israeli shelling.

**Destruction and shelling of houses**
Dozens of Palestinian homes and shops were bombed and destroyed, either partially or totally. Israeli forces bombed more than four houses using drones, including one in the town of Aktabah, a neighborhood northeast of Tulkarm.

**Three Palestinian martyrs**
Three Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli aerial bombardment inside one of the camp’s houses. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, three Palestinians were seriously injured by Israeli shelling while seeking shelter. The martyrs are Imad Shuraim, 34, Muawiya Al-Hajj Ahmed, 30, and Wasim Anbar, 30—all residents of Tulkarm refugee camp. Their bodies were buried three hours after Israeli forces withdrew, with their relatives bidding them a final farewell in the Danaba cemetery near the camp.

Palestinian elder raises his flag in defiance of the occupation forces

Three martyred and five wounded in Tulkarem

By Diana Khwaelid

Three Palestinian men were martyred and more than five Palestinians were wounded during the Israeli occupation’s invasion of Tulkarem.

The city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank has witnessed dozens of incursions by the Israeli occupation forces recently. Since 7th October, the number of martyrs of the city of Tulkarm has risen to 109, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

On 16th May, Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Tulkarm around 1:00 AM. The Israeli occupation forces stationed themselves in the city center on Nablus Street, where the occupation vehicles, accompanied by a D9 bulldozer, stormed the Gulf Exchange store. Israeli occupation forces completely destroyed the store and confiscated its money safe under the pretext that the exchange store transferred money to Palestinian organizations described by Israeli occupation forces as terrorist organizations.

The Israeli occupation forces also deployed snipers throughout the city in buildings and on the roofs of Palestinian homes. These snipers killed three Palestinian youths and wounded more than five other Palestinians.

The Palestinian martyrs are: Ahmed Mubarak, 26, from Tulkarem camp; Imad Dabbas, 22; and Mohammed Yusuf Nasrallah, 27.

Funeral processions started from Tulkarem’s Martyr Doctor Thabit Thabit Governmental Hospital amid angry national chants condemning the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the residents of Tulkarem and the massacres in the West Bank and Gaza.

The families of the martyrs bid a last farewell with a state of great sadness and sorrow.

Endless war – Nur Shams refugee camp

By Diana Khwaelid

30 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarm

A new Israeli incursion into the Nur Shams refugee camp continues an endless war of destruction after destruction.

On the night of Sunday December 30th dozens of military vehicles, including D9 bulldozers, stormed the city of Tulkarm and the Nur Shams refugee camp northeast of the city.

This invasion took place around midnight where the occupation forces surrounded the hospitals in the city, obstructing the movement of ambulances in transporting the injured Palestinians to hospitals.

Several people standing and walking through a street with houses partially destroyed. — The citizens taking stock of partially broken houses.

The Israeli occupation forces besieged the Nur Shams refugee camp for at least 11 continuous hours, from Sunday evening until Monday morning at 10:00 AM. During this, they destroyed infrastructure, cut off electricity, destroyed the water network and cut internet and communication lines.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Red Crescent crews dealt with several injuries on people from both the Nur Shams refugee camp and Tulkarm camp, including a serious injury to a person from Tulkarm camp after the storming of this camp, which took place simultaneously with the storming of Tulkarm city and Nur Shams camp by the Israeli Occupation Forces .

Dalal and Ahmed Khalifa, two Palestinian citizens of the camp whose house was invaded by the Occupation Forces said that the Israeli occupation forces broke into the house at about 3:00 AM.

Picture from inside Dalal Khalifa and her son Ahmed's house following the IOF invasion. Bullets are lying on the floor. — Picture from inside Dalal Khalifa and her son Ahmed’s house following the IOF invasion.

“The occupation forces confiscated all the family’s phones and our IDs, destroyed the house, broke windows and doors, conducted an investigation inside the house, and interrogated all family members, including women.” explained Dalal.

“The Israeli occupation forces did not take into account the presence of children and women in the house, as there were 5 children and two women in the house at the time of the break-in,” she said. “One of the soldiers stole my wallet and stole some of my money, and their break-in continued for at least 5 continuous hours until they left the next morning at 7:30 am.“

78-year-old Hassan Jabari whose house was damaged, explained that “The Israeli occupation forces broke into my house in the camp, and destroyed it from the inside, destroying household furniture and breaking windows. Half of my house was demolished.”

A picture of an older man, Hassan Jabari, clearing rubble from a half destroyed house. — Hassan Jabari clears rubble from his house following the IOF invasion.

“Thank God I was not at home at the time of the storming of the camp. I was at my daughter’s house in Thenaba – one of the villages next to the camp.” He added.

In the recent incursion into the camp, dozens of Palestinian homes were partially or fully destroyed both from inside and outside. The wall belonging to one of the UNRWA international institutions in the camp was destroyed.

During December, the Nur Shams refugee camp has been stormed at least 5 times.

Several people using a bucket to throw rubble out from inside of a house through a big hole in the wall. — People clearing out rubble from a house.

Nur Shams Refugee Camp – An Unbreakable Will

By Diana Khwaelid

We witness an unbreakable will in the Nour Shams refugee camp, located north-east in the city of
Tulkarem, despite being subjected to more than 10 incursions, killings, arrests,
destruction of roads and other infrastructure, shelling, and burning of houses and shops.

Storming the Nour Shams camp
On the evening of Monday December 25th, the Israeli occupation forces stormed
the Nur Shams refugee camp northeast of the city of Tulkarem in the north of the West
Bank.

Dozens of Israeli military vehicles accompanied by troop carriers and 4 D9 bulldozers were used by the occupation forces to destroy infrastructure in preparation for the entry of occupation soldiers on foot.
This Israeli military operation launched by the occupation forces on the camp lasted for more than 9 continuous hours.

Confronting the occupation forces and defending the camp.
Palestinian resistance fighters defended the camp and its residents and confronted the Israeli occupation forces who stormed the camp without warning. Armed clashes occurred between Palestinian gunmen who tried to defend the camp and the Israeli occupation forces who targeted residents and houses with live ammunition.

Destruction of infrastructure and roads.
The main and secondary roads were largely destroyed and neighborhoods of Nour Shams camp, mostly concentrated in the Al Damj neighborhood and Manshiyeh neighborhood. The Israeli occupation forces
destroyed the main roads by using military vehicles to bulldoze land and streets with military-type D9 bulldozers. Agricultural land with farming of crops was also destroyed.

Bombing of a house and burning of another.

The Israeli occupation forces targeted two Palestinian houses, one of which was
destroyed by aerial bombardment, and another one that was burned. Everything within it was destroyed from clothes to furniture. Other homes nearby suffered partial damage, such as glass being broken, doors being ripped off. The first house belongs to the citizen Youssef Zandiq one of the camp residents. the second house that was burned belongs to the family of the young man Musa
al-Azeb. The family of the young man Youssef Zandiq said:

“We evacuated the house before it was bombed as no one was inside. Thank God for
everything, we are lucky that there were no human losses.”

Some Palestinian homes were also stormed during the incursion, including the house of the Dahrouki family.
Israeli occupation forces also painted the logo of the star of the state of Israel, as a sign signalling that it will be bombed in the next incursion.
Despite all the violence and destruction carried out by the Israeli occupying forces during the past weeks and months, despite the human and material losses caused by the destruction of houses, roads, agricultural land andshops, the residents of Nur Shams camp still have a strong and unbroken will.

One war in Gaza and another in the West Bank

by Diana Khwaelid

7 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarem

The fire of the war between Hamas and Israel since October 7 has not only burned the civilian population of Gaza. Palestinian civilians in the West Bank have tasted their share of it, too.
On December 7, the Israeli occupation forces once again stormed the city of Tulkarem. They did so late at night, with dozens of military vehicles, including the D9 bulldozers that have been used by the Israeli army to destroy roads, streets and infrastructure in all previous incursions to Tulkarem camp, Nur Shams camp, Jenin camp and Balata camp.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) surrounded the Thabet Thabet Government Hospital in the city and obstructed the movement of ambulances. Ambulances were stopped and inspected after they managed to reach some of the injured Palestinians.

The IOF also stormed the Tulkarem refugee camp in the city, destroying the main street of the camp. But in this latest incursion, it was the population of the Nur Shams refugee camp — located three kilometers east of Tulkarem — that suffered the heaviest damage.

The Israeli occupation forces smashed the main entrance to the Nur Shams refugee camp for the seventh time this year. Eyewitnesses said that the occupation forces used bulldozers to destroy the infrastructure and roads in camp, including the main roads in the Al-Damaj neighborhood.

Vital civilian infrastructure, such water networks and sewerage were destroyed, as roads and streets became a dangerous zone for all residents of the camp, including women and children.

The IOF did not spare schools either. The main entrance to the UNRWA school in the camp was also destroyed, while another school saw its wall partially demolished.

In the meanwhile, residents of the Tulkarem camp buried the body of the martyr father Ayman Anbar, 47-year-old, who was wounded by a live bullet shot by an Israeli soldier during the second-last raid of the camp, which took place on November 14th. Abu Lamin stayed in the intensive care unit at the Nablus specialized hospital for almost three weeks before succumbing to the wounds. He leaves behind his wife and family, including Lamis, his 8-year-old daughter.

Lamis Anbar was joined by residents of the Tulkarem camp in mourning her father’s body and saying one last goodbye.

According to the latest statistics by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the number of Palestinian martyrs since the beginning of this year has reached 18,019, while 55,069 Palestinians have been injured and 9,029 arrested.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the number of martyrs of the West Bank since October 7th has reached 274.

The city of Tulkarm has recorded 44 Palestinian martyrs since October 7th