Israel’s West Bank raid stuns Palestinians: ‘We are another Gaza’

Israeli army armoured vehicles move along a road during a military operation in Tulkarm in the north of the occupied West Bank on August 29, 2024. | Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP

NUR SHAMS CAMP, Palestinian Territories — Palestinian residents of the Israeli-occupied West Bank expressed shock and despair Friday at the outcome of an Israeli raid on their refugee camp: bullet-riddled walls, destroyed homes and piles of concrete blocks.

“We are another Gaza, especially in the refugee camps,” said Nayef Alaajmeh, a resident of the Nur Shams camp in the city of Tulkarem, as he surveyed the damage following a devastating Israeli raid on the camp that ended late on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces launched a widespread “counter-terrorism” operation in several West Bank cities and refugee camps, including Nur Shams.

At least 19 Palestinians have been killed so far in the raids, according to the Israeli military and the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah. The majority of those killed were militants.

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The Israeli military initially sent bulldozers to tear up tarmac streets, sending clouds of dust over the targeted areas.

AFP footage showed camp residents walking cautiously through streets littered with burnt tyres and other debris.

Municipality workers and residents were already at work trying to salvage what they could.

Many residents compared the devastation to that in Gaza, where nearly 11 months of war have left much of the Palestinian territory destroyed.

“Today, we are just like Gaza, war or no war… (but) we are steadfast and the people of Gaza are also steadfast,” said Nabil Abu Shala, another resident of Nur Shams camp.

Fuad Kanuh, who runs a shop on the ground floor of the building where he lives, said gas cylinders exploded during the raid, apparently hit by explosives.

Almost everything in the shop is now charred and blackened by soot, but that did not stop Kanuh from pulling out what he could — an air conditioning unit and a television hanging from a wall.

The Israeli military is officially forbidden from entering West Bank cities and refugee camps, which are autonomous zones under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

– ‘Pressure on resistance’ –

Nur Shams has nevertheless been a regular target of Israeli raids.

Members of armed groups in the camp no longer wear face masks to conceal their identities, as they consider themselves to be “on the path to martyrdom”.

They are often targeted by Israeli armoured vehicles, snipers or drones.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 after the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel.

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But even before that, the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, was the scene of regular violence.

In the 10 months preceding October 7, the United Nations recorded 200 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank, which at the time was the highest toll during a period of that length since it began compiling such data in 2005.

Since October 7, around 640 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, according to the UN.

Although the death toll does not compare with that in Gaza, which the health ministry there says has crossed 40,600, the West Bank is not officially at war.

Three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, as well as half a million Israeli Jews in settlements considered illegal under international law.

“The occupation forces have destroyed the infrastructure and vandalised the roads, property and cars,” militant Abu Mohammed told AFP.

“They even demolished and vandalised the mosque.”

In Al-Faraa refugee camp in the nearby city of Tubas, Mohammed Mansur, a member of the central committee of the communist People’s Party, attended a funeral of four Palestinians killed on Wednesday during the Israeli raid.

“Here too they have carried out many massacres and bombings to put pressure on the resistance,” Mansur said.

“They want the people to turn against the resistance, but that will not happen,” he said, as bodies of those killed, wrapped in Palestinian flags, were laid to rest.

Before their burial, the bodies were carried through the camp in a funeral procession, with mourners walking on the streets freshly torn up by Israeli bulldozers.

As the procession advanced, young men brandishing automatic rifles fired into the air.