TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / January 28, 2025
Israeli forces detained 25 Palestinians and demolished a mosque in Jenin as part of the ongoing Operation Iron Wall, marking a new escalation in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli occupation forces have detained at least 25 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and demolished a mosque in the Jenin refugee camp on the eighth day of its ongoing offensive dubbed Operation Iron Wall.
Former detainees were among those abducted in the raids that targeted East Jerusalem, Hebron (Al-Khalil), Bethlehem, Nablus, Tulkarm, and Ramallah, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023 to over 14,300, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures cited by the Anadolu news agency.
The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.
Sixteen killed
In the Jenin refugee camp, the Israeli army demolished the Hamza Mosque as part of its large-scale raid into the area.
The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs condemned the mosque’s demolition saying it was a blatant attack on Islamic sanctities and a clear violation of all international laws and covenants that guarantee the protection of places of worship, reported WAFA.
Sixteen Palestinians have been killed, including a two-year-old child, and dozens injured since the operation was launched last Tuesday. Thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes as the Israeli army destroyed at least 100 houses in the camp.
Child injured
On Monday, the occupation forces notified the family of the slain youth Nidal Al-Amer of the demolition of their home in Jenin camp, which consists of several floors, reported WAFA. The army is also currently working to divide the camp into four parts, by destroying the streets, blowing up the homes, and burning them.
The Israeli occupation forces had withdrawn from the western outskirts of Jenin camp, then redeployed a short time later, preventing residents from checking on their homes, and detained a group of them, reported WAFA.
A child was injured by the Israeli army’s bullets in the vicinity of the Cinema Roundabout, amid violent confrontations, the report added.
Israeli forces also detained several citizens in Jenin camp and several neighbourhoods of the city.
The occupation army continues to send military reinforcements supported by bulldozers to the city of Jenin, with military vehicles stationed in front of Jenin Governmental Hospital, as warplanes and drones fly overhead.
Tulkarm raid
On Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli army forced Palestinian families to evacuate their homes in several neighbourhoods in Tulkarm camp, reported WAFA.
Witnesses told WAFA that occupation forces deployed large numbers of infantry troops inside the camp’s neighbourhoods, who raided homes and forced their residents to leave them at gunpoint and not return.
Dozens of elderly, women, children and people with disabilities were seen leaving the camp from its various entrances, carrying some of their belongings.
Several associations, centers and mosques in the city, its suburbs and villages, and a number of residents, said they would be ready to receive the displaced from the camp and those who were stranded, reported WAFA.
Journalists targeted
The occupation forces also continued the tight siege of the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital and the Israa Specialized Hospital, obstructing the work of ambulances and medical crews.
The Israeli soldiers also chased journalists covering the Israeli aggression on the city and its camp, and fired sound bombs at them, specifically on the street of the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital, the entrance to the camp, and near Al-Fareed Cinema in the western neighbourhood of the city, reported WAFA.
