Shatha Hanaysha
Mondoweiss / September 6, 2024
For 10 days, the Israeli army imposed a siege on the northern West Bank city of Jenin, killing dozens of Palestinians. Hundreds of residents were forced to flee holding white flags, while others were trapped in their homes with no food or water.
Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, including the Jenin refugee camp, early on Friday, after a 10-day military operation that resulted in the killing of dozens of Palestinians in Jenin and left significant destruction to the city and camp’s streets and infrastructure.
The invasion of Jenin was part of ‘Operation Summer Camps’, a multi-pronged operation that targeted several cities and refugee camps in the northern West Bank, including Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 39 Palestinians have been killed in the operation, 21 of whom were killed in Jenin alone.
During this operation, which was described as the largest since ‘Operation Defensive Shield’, which decimated the Jenin camp in 2002, Israeli forces also carried out drone strikes targeting resistance fighters in several of Jenin’s neighboring towns and villages. Additionally, they conducted multiple raids on homes they claimed were harboring wanted individuals.
As soon as the Israeli occupation army withdrew from Jenin city and the camp, displaced residents returned to their homes, which they had left either because they were forced to evacuate by the Israeli army or they fled due to the heavy gunfire and massive explosions near their houses.
As displaced families returned to their homes, so did hundreds of volunteers from nearby villages and towns to help clear the devastation caused by military bulldozers, which had destroyed vital infrastructure, commercial shops, and many homes.
Displaced waving white flags
While we were reporting from in front of the Jenin Governmental Hospital, which remained besieged throughout the days of the military operation, a family caught my attention as they were leaving the camp with their hands raised; among them was a woman who was carrying a white flag.
“I carried the white flag so we could get our young men out. The Israeli soldiers show no mercy to anyone. We just want to get our sons out. We are not afraid for ourselves but for them. We left amidst the destruction and gunfire,” she told Mondoweiss.
Another displaced woman told us, “At first, our neighborhood was safe, but in the morning on the fourth day, they bombed an area in the neighborhood. The Israeli army wanted to enter the area, and the drones were shelling. Every moment the situation became more dangerous and intense. We were worried about the elderly and the children, so we decided to leave.”
Um Weam Hariri, an elderly displaced woman we met on the fifth day of the military operation, told us that the Israeli soldiers forced her to evacuate her home, blowing up the doors while she, her children, and grandchildren were inside. She told Mondoweiss that for five days, the family did not have access to food or water as they were trapped inside their home.
“The thirst and hunger have been killing us after these five days. We didn’t even have a drop of water to drink, and my husband, who had a stroke, had his urine bag beside him. When they blew up the house, his hand was injured, and despite that, they detained him along with the young men,” Hariri said.
Another displaced person, Um Feda’ Shalabi, told us, “The gunfire was coming from all directions. Everything in the house was destroyed—the windows, the air conditioner, and the television screen. Some of us hid in the bathroom, while others took shelter in the kitchen.”
Shalabi continued, “We started screaming, hoping the [Israeli] occupation soldiers would hear us. Eventually, a soldier came up to us and asked who was in the house. We told him there were small children and women in the house, so they detained us for hours before allowing us to leave.”
“I had to place my granddaughter in another room, and I couldn’t even stand up to get her bottle. They took our phones and cut us off from the outside world,” she said. “These days were filled with terror, but thank God, we are used to this kind of thing.”
Medics under fire
Mohammad Abu Murad, a volunteer nurse and paramedic with the Jenin Camp Medical Aid team, remained inside the Jenin camp for the full 10 days of the incursion, only leaving to bring humanitarian aid, transport supplies, and move patients. He uses a small motorized vehicle, or a ‘tuk-tuk’ to conduct his work.
“The situation in the camp was very, very dire and difficult. There are homes and neighborhoods we haven’t been able to reach,” Abu Murad told Mondoweiss. “Neither the civil defense nor the Red Crescent has reached these areas either. Even with coordination [with the Israeli army], we sometimes faced direct gunfire when we reached certain parts of the camp.”
He continues, “During the Israeli operation, we transported many severe injuries. We took one person who was injured at a grocery store while he was buying supplies for his home. He was hit in the abdomen, and when we tried to reach him, we came under direct gunfire. The situation was truly very tragic.”
Paramedic Sameh Hanoun, who works in a private ambulance in the city, shared that he was assaulted by Israeli soldiers while trying to reach a medical case on the outskirts of the Jenin camp. “We were detained for hours, and they assaulted us, hitting us all over, without any reasonable cause for them to beat or detain us,” Hanoun told Mondoweiss.
He continued, “The situation overall is difficult, and there are constant obstacles from the occupation forces. They continuously search the ambulances and assault us as we try to help people.”
Residents were besieged with little food, water, and medicine
Abu Murad told Mondoweiss that during the early days of the incursion, medics relied on help from residents to send them messages and alert them when someone was injured or needed assistance.
“We would check if the area had Israeli soldiers or not and try to reach it. When the army was present, we would coordinate our efforts until they left, but sometimes they did not leave. In those cases, we sometimes had to go on our own and risk our lives,” he said.
“Sometimes we were able to respond to the calls, and other times we couldn’t due to obstacles from the [Israeli] occupation. Since the beginning of the incursion, we have dealt with injuries inside the camp, as well as kidney patients, heart conditions, chronic diseases, diabetes cases, women with children, and infants,” he said.
According to Abu Murad, patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes and hypertension faced difficulties in getting their medications due to the Israeli-imposed siege on the camp.
“So, we started going to other patients who had a better stock of medicines and taking those to the ones in need,” he said, adding that residents who were besieged in their homes also had to ration baby formula supplies, food, and water.
“For example, the bread ran out in all the shops in the camp by the third day of the incursion, leaving the camp in dire need of bread and water,” he said, adding that Israeli fire punctured the plastic tanks on the rooftops of homes in the camp which store people’s water reserves, further exacerbating the situation.
Jenin Municipality: Jenin is a ‘Devastated City’
In the aftermath of the raid, Jenin Mayor Nidal Obedi said in an interview with Mondoweiss, “The Israeli occupation is brutal and lethal. There was a citizen in the eastern neighborhood who was killed—an elderly man over 84 years old. People were killed in their homes and in front of their houses.”
“The greatest loss we suffer is the loss of the lives of our martyrs, our sons, and the blood of our people. But there are also severe material losses,” Obeidi said. “Over the past two years, which intensified after October 7, the region has incurred [material] losses amounting to no less than 100 million shekels.”
Obeidi estimates that over the course of the 10-day incursion, Jenin and its surrounding areas sustained damages and losses to property that amounted to “no less than 50 million shekels,” or approximately $13.4 million.
The extent of the damage is enormous. Jenin has indeed become a devastated city,” Obeidi said. “The commercial district was targeted, the power towers were struck, and even the underground power lines were uprooted and destroyed.”
He called on the Palestinian Authority to intervene in repairing the damaged infrastructure, saying “The extent of the damage in Jenin Municipality is beyond what we can handle.”
“I hope the government will take very swift steps to provide the necessary aid to the city of Jenin and the Jenin camp, so that we can restore, at least minimally, what the citizens need,” Obeidi said.
As residents mourn their dead, the resistance vows to continue
On Friday morning, in the wake of the army’s retreat from the city, hundreds of Palestinians in Jenin held a massive funeral procession for 14 people who had been killed during the military operation.
The procession saw a significant presence of resistance fighters, signaling that armed resistance in Jenin and its camp would continue despite the recent blows sustained in the incursion.
In an interview with Mondoweiss, one of the resistance fighters stated that this latest Israeli military operation “would not affect their commitment to continue resisting the occupation until they achieve freedom,” emphasizing that the martyrdom of their comrades “only strengthens their resolve.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli army spokesperson announced that the operation in Jenin is not over and that the Israeli army will continue its military activities in Jenin “until their objectives are met.”
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the ‘Summer Camps’ operation is still ongoing, with security officials stating, “We will return soon to Jenin and other areas; the operation in the northern West Bank and throughout the region will not stop.”
Shatha Hanaysha is a Palestinian journalist based in Jenin in the occupied West Bank
