IShatha Hanaysha
Mondoweiss / July 24, 2024
Israeli forces carried out a drone strike on a crowded refugee camp, killing five people including a paramedic and her daughter. Eyewitnesses said Israeli forces desecrated the bodies with a bulldozer before taking four bodies into custody.
Over the course of 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday, Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians during raids and military operations in the occupied West Bank. Among them were five Palestinians who were killed by a drone strike in the Tulkarem refugee camp, including a paramedic and her daughter, and the commanders of armed resistance groups in the camp.
In addition to the five Palestinians killed in Tulkarem, six other Palestinians were killed in other areas of the West Bank, including a martyr in the Qalandia refugee camp, another in Tubas, two in Hebron, and a martyr who succumbed to injuries sustained about a week ago.
At dawn on Tuesday the Israeli army carried out a large-scale military operation in the Tulkarem refugee camp that lasted 16 hours. During this operation, the army destroyed the camp’s infrastructure and dozens of shops, while Israeli bulldozers demolished many of the external walls of homes.
Residents of the Tulkarem refugee camp described the operation as one of the harshest and most difficult the camp has ever experienced, given the gruesome nature in which the martyrs were killed and their bodies abused and mistreated.
Photos went viral on social media in the aftermath of the raid, showing an Israeli military bulldozer carrying the bodies of four of the martyrs in the front blade of the machine. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the four martyrs’ bodies were taken and detained by the Israeli forces.
They were identified as Ashraf Eid Zaher Nafe’, Mohammed Ibrahim Awad, Mohammed Badi’ Mohammed Radwan, and Bayan Mohammed Jumaa Salama Eid. Bayan’s mother, Eman Abdullah Salem, a paramedic, was also killed, though her body was not taken by the army and was buried on Wednesday..
Meanwhile, the occupation forces prevented ambulance vehicles from entering the camp and fired at the medical teams.
One of the volunteer paramedics in the Tulkarem refugee camp told Mondoweiss that he and other paramedics were stationed in several locations across the camp in anticipation of any emergency.
“What happened was that we suddenly heard the sound of the bombardment, and we rushed out,” he said, referring to the drone strike that targeted the camp at around 6:40 am in the al-Hamam neighborhood. “We managed to reach the site and found the [army] bulldozer clearing the area. We found one of the martyrs with his head unrecognizable, and there were intestines on the ground,” he said.
He continued, “We told the soldiers that we were paramedics, wearing ambulance uniforms and carrying identification cards, but they ordered us to go back. We tried to pull the martyrs from the area, but the Israeli soldiers came and prevented us from getting close, and they told us that the entire camp would be demolished.”
He added, “They raised the bulldozer and struck the bodies with it, so we shouted at them. We tried to pull one martyr out, whose arm was severed at the shoulder. Then we managed to pull a female martyr (Eman Salem) out with great difficulty. We also had two injuries with shrapnel in the abdomen that we couldn’t treat. Then the bulldozer returned and struck the bodies again. They loaded the bodies onto the bulldozer, and the last three martyrs were in pieces as they started hitting them with the bulldozer.”
As soon as the Israeli forces withdrew from the camp, the residents went out to the streets, only to find that the streets were virtually unrecognizable due to the destruction. They found piles of rubble from the homes and shops that the Israeli bulldozers had destroyed during the operation, as well as damage to water, electricity, communication, and sewage networks.
One of the women in the camp said, “For a moment, I didn’t recognize the street I pass through every day. The destruction is very extensive in the homes, streets, and shops. But thank God, it is for the sake of the resistance and the youth.”
A resident of the camp told Mondoweiss, “We sacrifice our blood for the camp. Everything that is destroyed, we will rebuild. The camps are pure, some of the purest places in the world. The refugees are the beginning and the end of the story. The people of Gaza are a crown on our heads, regardless of whether they are Green, Yellow, or Red (referring to different political parties). Everything falls under one goal: the liberation of the land and the people from the occupation.”
He continued, “The occupation believes that those who carry arms in this land seek death. No, we want to live with dignity. We don’t ask for homes, food, or drink; we only want to live with dignity. We are seeking freedom in our land from the occupier and the murderous settlers.”
Tulkarem refugee camp, located in the northern West Bank, has been targeted by the Israeli military for its armed resistance activities for the past few years. However, the events of October 7th significantly accelerated armed resistance activities in the Tulkarem camp due to the city’s geographical location and its proximity to Israeli military checkpoints and settlements.
The resistance in Tulkarem camp has managed to carry out shooting operations and a series of targeted attacks with explosive devices in recent months. This has elicited strong reactions from members of the extreme right-wing Israeli government, who have called for the city and its camps to be turned into ruins.
The latest Israeli military operation is one of many that have aimed not only to target resistance fighters, but to destroy the infrastructure in the refugee camp as part of a collective punishment policy.
After the operation in the Tulkarem refugee camp ended, special forces from the Israeli army raided the Azbat al-Jarad area in Tulkarem city and surrounded a residential building. This led to intense clashes that ended with the arrest of three young men, one of whom was injured.
A photo posted on social media showed that the Israeli forces placed an injured person at the front of a military vehicle and used him as a human shield. The situation ended with his arrest.
This is not the first time the Israeli army has done this. A similar incident occurred in Jenin when they placed an injured person at the front of a military vehicle, paraded him around, and used him as a human shield before handing him over to medical teams.
Israeli special forces kill Palestinian Authority customs officer in Tubas
Early Wednesday morning, special forces from the Israeli army raided an area near the customs office headquarters in Tubas, in the northern Jordan Valley in the West Bank. There, the forces assassinated one of the customs officers, and injured another with moderate wounds.
The Palestinian Red Crescent identified the martyred customs officer as Abdul-Nasser Sarhan,23, (from the Nablus-area Balata refugee camp.
A video captured by a CCTV camera in the area showed an unmarked van stop next to the customs office headquarters. The special forces disembarked from the vehicle and turned the corner at the same moment that Sarhan was exiting the building. They fired at him at point blank range, causing him to fall to the ground, before the special forces retreated. According to the Red Crescent, their first response teams were prevented from approaching him for several hours before eventually transferring him to the government Turkish Hospital in Tubas city.
The violence and killing carried out by the Israeli army in the West Bank have intensified since October 7th, with drone strikes like the one in Tulkarem and assassinations like that in Tubas becoming more and more frequent. Recently, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant announced the removal of restrictions on the use of warplanes in the West Bank and issued orders to the Israeli army to “eliminate” the armed brigades there.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 589 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 7th, including 142 children.
Shatha Hanaysha is a Palestinian journalist based in Jenin in the occupied West Bank
