As Israeli tanks roll into Jenin, Palestinians prepare for lengthy invasion

A crowd of people gathered in Jenin’s occupied West Bank to watch two massive armored bulldozers smash into the camp and clear the path for three Israeli tanks.

As the sun sets over one of the camp’s entrances on Sunday, a young man said, “This is the first time I’ve seen a tank with my own eyes.”

Before him, two massive bulldozers rumbled forward, destroying more of the road underneath them. The refugee camp, nearly emptied after weeks of relentless attacks, was bracing for yet another military incursion.

Ahmed, born in Jenin in 2003 at the height of the second Intifada, had witnessed military incursions before. However, since the uprising started in 2002, Israeli tanks haven’t been seen on the streets of Jenin, and it appears that the Israelis intend to remain.

Ahmed stood among a group of young men and boys on Haifa Street, near one of the camp’s entrances.

“It won’t be easy for them to stay”, he muttered, as the heavy machinery continued its work.

For more than an hour, journalists, locals, and a nearby Israeli military jeep observed in silence as the bulldozers dismantled the roundabout on Haifa Street. Then the armoured vehicles began their march into the city as the last pieces of debris were pushed aside and the Merkava tanks’ engines roared.

A young man standing nearby, when asked whether he expected immediate resistance, shook his head. “I don’t think so. There’s no one left in the camp, not even the fighters”.

The tanks and the stones

Nonetheless, as the tanks pressed forward towards the refugee camp, a familiar scene unfolded.

Groups of Palestinian youth and children, armed with nothing but stones, hurled them at the approaching tanks. The tank’s operator reacted by firing its cannon and turret directly at the crowd of reporters and spectators. Moments later, the air filled with tear gas, dispersing the young men and children who had gathered.

Since 2022, Israel has been conducting nearly daily raids in the occupied West Bank, with the aim of stifling armed Palestinian resistance groups there. Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Israel has increased the deadly force it uses in the West Bank, using helicopters, drones and now tanks.

Israeli forces have attacked other locations, including in Qabatiya and Tulkarem, with the most recent increase in violence in Jenin beginning on January 21. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated on Sunday that he had instructed the military to “prepare for a long stay in the cleared camps for the upcoming years, preventing residents from returning, and stopping terrorism from regaining.”

One young man who had recently been forced to flee the camp was one of the people who witnessed the tanks vanish into the camp. He stood in silence, his face tense with uncertainty. “Once again, we don’t know what will happen”, he said. Many people have nowhere to sleep tonight, but I have a house to stay in for now.

Salvaging belongings

More than 40 000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their West Bank homes, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and Israeli forces refuse to let them go back.

Following weeks of siege, during which the camp’s first-time residents, the Palestinian Authority forces, then the Israeli military, imposed severe restrictions on movement before obstructing access to the camp’s water and electricity.

Many families were forced to flee suddenly, leaving behind their belongings, including a group of women navigating Jenin’s destroyed, mud-filled streets.

They planned to return to their homes and reclaim some of the items they had been made to leave at one of the camp’s entrances.

Faces tired, shoes muddy, and surrounded by the bags they were going to use to gather their belongings, they waited to be let through.

But they were unsuccessful. They were prevented from entering checkpoints that the Israeli soldiers had constructed using the rubble they had erected by destroying the camp’s streets.

One of the women expressed her disappointment as the officer told us yesterday that we could come back today, but he is now refusing to let us in.

The women, who were encircled by the rubble and destruction that had filled the narrow, murky streets, refused to give up and began walking down another access road. They were warned off trying again, though, with one ominous word: “Snipers”!

just her backwear

“We’ll be back one day”, Halima Zawahidi, said, her smile contrasting with tired eyes and a slow, shuffling gait caused by her lung cancer.

Halima was born in the refugee camp in Jenin, where she spent her entire life, but Israeli soldiers forced her to leave on January 22. She fled the violence, with nothing more than the clothes on her back.

The 63-year-old can vividly recall jets overhead, where bullets flew high above their heads and filled the air with gunfire.

The tone for the following weeks will be set as a result of Israeli forces killing 10 people that day.

Eight people, including Halima, her brothers, sisters, and nephews are now crammed into one room at a deaf educational facility, which later served as a shelter for some 16 families who were forcefully expelled from the refuge camp.

Other families have been forced to relocate to other locations in Jenin city, staying with their loved ones, or wherever they can find.

However, Halima claimed that this was the most extensive and brutal Israeli attack she had ever witnessed on a camp that has seen more than enough Israeli raids in recent years.

The Israelis will stay, she added, because she believes they want to expel everyone who lives in the camp, as is apparent from all the destruction.

Halima is optimistic that several of her house’s walls have been severely damaged or fell, and that the windows and doors have been completely blown out.

We were under siege for 45 days, according to Halima, in addition to the regular Israeli raids the refugee camp residents have endured for years.

“There was no electricity, no water, no roads, shooting. Before the Israeli invasion, the Palestinian Authority forces who had besieged the Palestinians in the camp had raided the camp, she continued, citing the camp’s darkness.

None of the other displaced in Jenin, aside from Halima, knows when she will return home.

With few guardrails and an American administration that appears to be actively supporting its actions, Israel continues to violate what would have previously been seen as red lines.

While many people think Israel’s top goal is to eradicate the Palestinian population from Gaza, where it has used all of its military force for 15 months, a similar endeavor has so far failed.

But even without a strategy, Israel’s military strength directed towards the people of Jenin has upended the lives of thousands, with no end in sight.

“What are they going to do”? asked one resident, Jameela. “Destroy all the camp? Do they want to “make a hole in the land” and bury us there?

Source: Aljazeera