Hundreds of Israeli forces have for more than a week 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.
A man walks on a damaged road following an Israel i army raid in Jenin, West Bank , on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. Mourners carry the body of Loujain Muslah, 16, wrapped with Hamas flag during her funeral in the West Bank village of Kafr Dan near Jenin, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 16 year old Palestinian girl was shot dead Tuesday by Israel i fire in the northern West Bank village of Kufr Dan.
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.
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. In the West Bank, Israel is not aiming to entirely wipe out the militant activity concentrated in several of the territory’s refugee camp’s, 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 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.”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.
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.
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