ISRAEL’s continuing deadly raids in Jenin have killed at least 25 Palestinians and displaced nearly 20,000 this year, the camp’s media committee said.
On Thursday, it said that the Israeli army has also prevented water from reaching four main hospitals in the region and said that 35 percent of Jenin city’s residents have also been deprived of water.
Since a ceasefire in Gaza was announced last month, Israel has increased the frequency and intensity of its attacks in Jenin and across the occupied West Bank, leaving behind widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis.
On Thursday, the Israeli army launched an attack on a parked vehicle in Jenin. No injuries have been reported so far.
The Jenin refugee camp, set up in 1953 by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to accommodate displaced Palestinians, is a hub for Palestinian resistance groups operating under the umbrella of the Jenin Brigades and has long been a focal point for Israeli military incursions.
On Thursday, the Israeli army also said it had detained more than 90 Palestinians this week across the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said at least 380 people have been arrested by Israeli forces since the start of their large-scale military operations in the occupied West Bank after the Gaza ceasefire went into effect on January 19.
At least 150 Palestinians have been arrested in Jenin over the past 24 days with at least 125 taken in by Israeli soldiers during an 18-day siege of Tulkarem, according to the PPS. It recorded at least 100 arrests in Tubas over 17 days.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said that the Israeli army is digging deeper in Jenin and Tulkarem by continuing nightly raids.
“What we have been hearing from official sources in Tulkarem, for example, is that this onslaught resulted in the displacement of 85 percent of the residents of its refugee camp, and of a significant portion of the Jenin refugee camp which is now almost unrecognisable in some areas,” she said.
“This mass displacement is happening while Israeli military officials are saying that their plan is to completely change the geography of the camp, and that there will be some areas where return will simply not be possible because they will be torn down.”
