Residents of the Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank, who returned Wednesday after Israel’s large-scale military operation, denounce the destruction of homes and streets.
“I’m going back to my house. I don’t know if it’s still standing or not,” Ibrahim, a 50-year-old Palestinian who fled the refugee camp when Israel’s military operation began, told Efe.
This morning dozens of people entered the Jenin refugee camp, a historic Palestinian stronghold located in the northern occupied West Bank.
Some 3,000 residents left the refugee camp early Monday as a large-scale military operation, by land and air, intensified against the Palestinian-inhabited territory.
It is estimated that around 20,000 people live in the refugee camp.
It was Israel’s largest military campaign in the West Bank since the Second Intifada (2000-2005) involving 1,000 Israeli soldiers supported by warplanes.
So far, the deaths of 12 Palestinian citizens, including four minors, and one Israeli soldier have been recorded.
The Israeli Army confirmed this morning that it was withdrawing from the area, after the start of the departure of troops last night.
Many residents have chosen to stay in the camp despite pleas from the Palestinian humanitarian aid organization, the Red Crescent, that they know “what it is like for a refugee to leave” where they are.
The Jenin refugee camp is populated by Palestinian families who were forced to flee their places of origin in 1948, the date of the founding of the State of Israel.
“We are not afraid. If a person lives in the Jenin countryside, they cannot be afraid,” Abdoul Hafed, 45, who stayed with his wife and three children for the last 48 hours, told the EFE news agency.
In some parts of the interior, this morning the supply of water and electricity was resumed.
The Jenin refugee camp was the scene of the bloodiest days of the Second Intifada when an Israeli military raid in April 2002 killed 52 Palestinian citizens in ten days of fighting.
Twenty-three Palestinian soldiers were killed in the April 2002 operation.
Source: TSF
