After a military operation in Jenin that lasted nearly 40 hours, Israeli forces withdrew from the city of Jenin and its refugee camp on Thursday morning, May 23, leaving 12 Palestinians martyred in its wake.
“The occupation forces killed the doctor, the teacher, and the student from the very first moment of the incursion,” Jenin residents told Mondoweiss following the Israeli army’s announcement of the start of a military operation on the camp and the city at 7 a.m. on Monday, May 20.
The Ministry of Health announced on Thursday that four of the 12 slain Palestinians were children. Among the victims was a school student who was returning from school after hearing about the incursion.
Mondoweiss spoke to residents who witnessed several of the killings. Many of them said that as soon as the invasion began, Israeli forces fired randomly at Palestinians on their way to work or school.
A 51-year old surgical specialist, Osaid Jabareen, was killed on his way to Jenin Governmental Hospital. His family told Mondoweiss that the martyred doctor had been on his way for a scheduled surgery that morning, and he didn’t know about the incursion. As soon as he reached the hospital entrance and got out of his vehicle, the army soldiers shot him directly, leading to his death.
The same happened with Allam Jaradat, 48, a school teacher who was carpooling with his colleagues on their way to work. Speaking to Mondoweiss, one of his colleagues said that they heard a nearby explosion and stopped the car. When they saw Palestinian vehicles moving, they moved again as well, but then they heard gunfire. Jaradat, seated in the car, fell into his colleague’s arms, who initially thought he was taking cover from the sound of gunfire. It took him a moment to discover that Jaradat had been shot. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
On the second day, while the military operation was ongoing, the residents of Jenin refugee camp endured harsh living conditions amid house raids, the destruction of infrastructure, and intense armed clashes between Palestinian resistance fighters and occupation soldiers.
The Israeli army announced a curfew within the camp during the incursion, prohibiting residents from leaving and preventing ambulances from entering several neighborhoods within the camp. Meanwhile, other families were forced to flee amid harassment by Israeli soldiers to Jenin Governmental Hospital and various homes in the city and its neighboring villages.
Many residents of the camp issued appeals to the Red Cross and humanitarian organizations after Israeli forces stormed their homes, preventing them from leaving and detaining them in a single room. Firas al-Ghoul, one of the camp’s residents, told Mondoweiss that the army detained him, his wife, their children, his sister, and her children, including infants no older than two weeks old, in the storage room of their home.
The Israeli army also bulldozed streets in the camp and parts of Jenin city, destroying main roads, cutting off routes, and isolating neighborhoods from each other. This was accompanied by Israeli gunfire directed at anyone who moved outdoors. The army also carried out a demolition operation on the home of the martyred Ahmad Barakat, a resistance fighter who was assassinated along with two of his comrades by an Israeli military drone on March 20, 2024.
In the late hours of Wednesday evening, the Red Crescent announced that it had retrieved the bodies of two martyrs and several injured individuals found on the sides of roads in different locations. These martyrs had been bystanders who were shot by the Israeli army, and citizens discovered them hours after they had been wounded.
‘Invaders will perish’ on the walls of Jenin and its camp
Resistance fighters from the Jenin Brigade and other resistance brigades in nearby villages and towns participated in repelling the attack, supporting the fighters in the camp by targeting army vehicles with live ammunition and explosive devices. Several military vehicles were damaged, and the Israeli army left behind their remains after the raid had concluded.
The Jenin Brigade released a statement on the battle’s aftermath, which it dubbed “The Battle of the Walls of Death.” The Brigade said that they fought will all their “strength and courage,” vowing that “this battle will not be like its predecessors. It will continue.”
The statement went on to vow that all invaders “will perish on the walls of Jenin and its camp, and all fascist plots and conspiracies will shatter on its rocks.”
During the incursion, the Israeli army carried out a campaign of arrests of dozens of Palestinians in Jenin city and refugee camp. Among them was Wafaa Jarrar, the wife of Hamas leader Abdul Jabbar Jarrar. The Israeli army announced that Jarrar was injured by the explosion of a military vehicle when it ran over an IED as she was being transported from the city to an interrogation center.
Israeli forces withdrew from the camp early on Thursday after arresting several Palestinians.
Hope to be wrong. Sure looks like dancing to greater Israel’s tune. If so, how does this work out well for the Palestinian future? “Doing the same thing over and over…..” ?