Qassam Muaddi
Mondoweiss / October 8, 2024
After a year of near-constant Israeli military raids on their homes and private spaces, women are some of the most affected among the Palestinian residents of Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem.
The escalating Israeli offensive against the northern West Bank has primarily been aimed at decapitating the armed resistance groups that have continued to spread across the northern cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas since October 7. In addition to resistance fighters, women have been one of the most targeted groups in Palestinian society amid the Israeli crackdown, which intensified in late August when the Israeli army launched “Operation Summer Camps.”
These military raids aren’t new. Since 2021, these cities and their adjacent refugee camps have been at the center of a concerted Israeli campaign of targeting entire Palestinian communities through the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the raiding of homes, impacting the entire population. a
Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem has become a regular target of Israeli forces in recent months. The camp has witnessed the bulldozing of its streets many times over, sustaining extensive damage to its water and power lines. Most of the 114 Palestinians killed in Tulkarem since January were in Nur Shams, which has been practically isolated from the rest of the city. Women have been among the most affected.
In a building housing the Nur Shams Association for the Rehabilitation of the Handicapped, a group of women met for a group therapy session in late September, where they shared their experiences and traumas from the Israeli raids. All of the women interviewed for this report preferred to remain anonymous.
Moderating the session was Nehaya al-Jundi, the Association’s Director. “Most of the women here suffer from anxiety and traumas related to loss,” al-Jundi told Mondoweiss. “Many of them have experienced raids to their homes, and all of them deal with the traumas and needs of their families, especially children.”
“The most painful thing for me continues to be the destruction of my house,” one woman whose home was recently raided by Israeli soldiers told Mondoweiss. “I struggled for so long with my husband to build it and make it into a home, piece by piece. It was torture to see the occupation soldiers damaging its contents and breaking everything as I watched, unable to do anything.”
The woman recalled how Israeli soldiers pushed her and her husband, along with their children, into the kitchen and locked them in there. “They forced us to remain in the kitchen for 14 hours,” she said. “I could see them going around, enjoying my house as if it were theirs, turning over the furniture, breaking our belongings”.
“One of them began to throw eggs on the floor and on the furniture,” she added.
Another woman described her experience during the raid of her neighbour’s home. “I was trapped in the house with my children, and I could hear the sound of breaking and screaming in our neighbour’s house,” she said. “Electricity was cut off, and so was the internet, so I couldn’t communicate with anyone to find out what was happening.”
“With every new raid, I’m worried that the soldiers might come into my home and destroy it or hurt my children,” she continued. “I stop all my activity and stay on the edge of my nerves, unable to think, paralyzed by anxiety and this feeling of being vulnerable.”
A third woman shared the same sense of vulnerability. “It is the worst. I am exposed, my husband and my children are exposed,” she described. “None of us can offer the other any sense of protection or safety.”
“During the last raid on the camp, soldiers broke into my house, and they asked me to take off my praying veil. At first, I refused,” she recounted. “But then I complied despite the presence of male soldiers in the house because I wanted to protect my husband and children from being beaten.”
“Meanwhile, I kept hearing the sound of police dogs sniffing around the house, leaving their smell all over the place,” she said.
Shrinking public and private space for women
In Palestinian society, Nehaya al-Jundi explains, “women are the pillar of the household.” Their care for the needs of the entire family places an added burden on them during such times of chronic exposure to danger and uncertainty. “It has increased their hardships since the beginning of the war,” al-Jundi says.
According to al-Jundi, “Many working-class women take care of all the needs of their homes for weeks while their husbands work in Israel. But since October, the occupation revoked all working permits, and men are trapped at home with no work and income.”
“This has provoked many tensions and domestic problems that women have to deal with,” al-Jundi explains.
“During raids, things become worse,” she says. “Women are the ones who have to calm the children down and protect the youngest or the handicapped from going outside during raids. They are the ones who take care of the personal needs of every person in the house, whereas men often don’t have the experience.”
One of the women shared that after each raid, the public space afforded to women and their families seemed to contract in the wake of the Israeli destruction.
“Walking the bulldozed streets on the way home, I feel trapped. These streets are the only public space where my children can play,” she explained. “Not only are they destroyed, but they’re also unsafe because a new raid can happen at any moment. I can’t take my elderly father-in-law for his daily walk either, and I have to calm his frustration and fear at home.”
She also described her challenges in finding supplies for herself and the home. “I go out to the market to replace the things we consumed during the raid; not only food, but hygiene products, which I often don’t find, and more than once I couldn’t afford them,” she said.
While sharing her thoughts, the woman burst into tears. Another woman sitting next to her remained un-expressive, remarking, “I cried after the first raid I witnessed. But then so many raids came after that, and I adapted.”
“During the last raid, I was frying potatoes. I kept cooking in total calm while soldiers were shooting at people just downstairs. It’s as if I can’t feel anything anymore,” she said.
“Only three women have been killed in Tulkarem in the last wave of raids,” Nehaya al-Jundi points out. “But every one of the men or youth killed had a mother, a sister, or a wife who continues to bear the pain, most of the time in silence.”
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss
