Jack Jeffrey & Julia Frankel
AP / September 4, 2024
For more than a week, hundreds of Israeli forces have carried out the deadliest operation in the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza began. Their focus has been the Jenin refugee camp — a bastion of Palestinian militancy that has grown more fervent since the Hamas attack on Israel that launched the war.
The fighting in Jenin accounts for 18 of the 33 Palestinians health officials say have been killed, most of whom the military says have been militants. Israel says its soldiers are dug in for battle with Hamas and other groups, meaning the death toll is likely to rise.
Israeli military officials say the operation targeting militants in Jenin, Tulkarem and the Al-Faraa refugee camp is necessary to curb recent attacks against Israeli civilians they say have become more sophisticated and deadly. One Israeli soldier has been killed in the operation.
The Jenin raid has been devastating for Palestinian civilians, too. Water and electric service have been cut, families have been confined to their homes and ambulances evacuating the wounded have been slowed on their way to nearby hospitals, as Israeli soldiers search for militants.
Here’s what we know about the raid on Jenin:
A troubled city in the West Bank
Jenin has long been a flashpoint in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It was originally established to house Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. But over time the refugee camp morphed into a crowded, urban neighborhood that — like the rest of the West Bank — has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.
In 2002, during the height of the second intifada, or uprising, Israeli forces flattened large sections of the impoverished city. The gun fighting that ensued killed 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers, according to the United Nations.
In recent years, the Palestinian Authority, which administers urban pockets of the West Bank, has had a diminishing influence in Jenin. It is seen by many Jenin residents as a subcontractor of the occupation because it coordinates with Israel on security matters. On occasion, the authority’s forces have clashed and exchanged fire with Palestinian militants.
The militant groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas operate freely across Jenin, and fight together in Gaza, too. Jenin’s streets are regularly lined with posters depicting slain fighters as martyrs to the Palestinian struggle, while young men carrying walkie-talkies patrol the alleys.
Since war broke out on Oct. 7, Israeli forces have stepped up their raids on Jenin, often launching drone strikes on targets there. But until the most recent raid, most had only lasted several hours, or at most a few days.
Also since Oct. 7, there has been a surge of violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, and an increase in the construction of settlements in the occupied territory.
More than 680 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed since October, most by Israeli troops and some by settlers, according to local health officials. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a query seeking the number of Israelis killed in the West Bank over the same period.
A longer Israeli raid, not a new strategy
In Jenin, armored vehicles have blocked entrances and exits, and bulldozers have plowed roads. Soldiers set up positions inside abandoned buildings, searched homes and traded fire with militants. Israeli forces surrounded hospitals, stopping ambulances carrying in waves of wounded to check if they were sheltering militants.
Israeli aims in Jenin are more modest than in Gaza, where it publicly pledged to wipe out Hamas’ military capabilities in the enclave for good through a months-long campaign
In the West Bank, Israel is not aiming to entirely wipe out the militant activity concentrated in several of the territory’s refugee camps, said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with military restrictions. Instead, the raids are intended to thwart pending attacks on Israeli civilians — such as an attempted bombing in Tel Aviv claimed by Hamas in August and a shooting of an Israeli civilian in the Palestinian town of Qalqilya in June.
The military official said the operation across the West Bank involves fewer soldiers than a major raid on the Jenin camp before the war that killed 12. But he could not say when the raid would end.
Some analysts are skeptical the latest raid in Jenin would have any dramatic long-term impact, in terms of making Israel less vulnerable to West Bank militancy.
“The current escalation relies on intense efforts of Hamas and Iran and deep weakness of the PA — which are not going to be changed,” said Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli army intelligence officer who is now an analyst of Palestinian affairs at Tel Aviv University. “Another operation is a matter of time.”
Ambulances inspected and hospitals surrounded
Jenin’s residents have described scenes of destruction. They said some Israeli soldiers are moving from house to house, while others are digging up roads with armored bulldozers.
When asked, the army said its troops are clearing militant command centers scattered across the city and uprooting explosive devices buried underneath streets.
“They cut off the water, they cut off the electricity, they cut off the internet. We are ready to live by candlelight,” said Jenin resident Mohannad Hajj Hussein.
Oroba al-Shalabi said she fled her family home in the heart of Jenin last Saturday after being briefly detained by Israeli forces and separated from her male relatives.
“They (the Israeli soldiers ) locked us in a room at the beginning, and when we went out (of the room) the men were tied to the floor,” she said. Soon after she was allowed to leave, but without her male family members.
The Israeli military official said there is no curfew in Jenin and that the army is allowing civilians to leave different areas of the city if they wish.
But many districts of the city remain near impossible to access, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, whose ambulances must coordinate with Israeli authorities before they can be dispatched. Over the past week, she said the humanitarian organization has received hundreds of calls from residents in Jenin asking for food, medications and baby formula.
“People are trapped now in Jenin refugee camp…..we’re still getting dozens of calls,” she said.
Julia Frankel is an Associated Press reporter in Jerusalem
