Last Updated on 06/09/2024 by Arun jain
Israeli military forces appeared on Friday to withdraw from the Palestinian city of Jenin after 10 days. raid That killed 21 people, including children, and caused widespread destruction of streets, homes and businesses, according to Palestinian news media and residents.
Hours after the Israeli army withdrew from the city, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian civil defense teams rushed in with public works and utility workers to assess the damage and begin efforts to restore essential services, according to Wafa, the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority.
It was not immediately clear if all the soldiers had left JanineOr whether they will return soon. Israeli forces have pulled out of Palestinian cities and towns several times in the past week before returning, as they launched their most extensive and deadly raids in the West Bank in years.
In a statement on Friday, the Israeli military did not comment on the withdrawal but said its forces “continue to work to achieve the objectives of counter-terrorism operations.”
Palestinian residents who had been trapped in their homes for days – as Israeli soldiers and bulldozers roamed Jenin – took to the streets on Friday and some who had fled the raids returned. They found their neighbors unfamiliar.
“God, I just broke down,” said Kariman Abu Nais, 30, as she watched a video of her home taken by her father-in-law, who had returned to a neighborhood known as the Jenin camp.
Ms. Abu Nais, who fled the raid, heard from neighbors on Sunday that Israeli soldiers had fired missiles at her home, which had already been damaged by Israeli bulldozers. That night, she said, she couldn’t sleep and cried for hours.
Seeing the damage on video – including the destroyed ground-floor living room where they received guests – was even more difficult.
“Literally, all we had was in that house. Our things, all our memories, good and bad,” said Mrs. Abu Nais, a mother of two. Her husband was Muhammad Shot dead By Israeli soldiers in 2022 as he was walking home from work.
“The two most precious things to me were mine the husband And my house,” she said, “and now I’ve lost them both.”
Raids in the last 10 days, including an attack on Tulakaram town The deadliest in the region in years. At least 39 people have been killed in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
According to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees, seven children were killed said The last week was the deadliest since November for Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
About three million Palestinians live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. The Israeli military described the raids, which began on August 28, as an effort to crack down on Palestinian armed groups and counter increasing attacks against Israelis – a significant increase on the near-night operations that had already become the norm there.
In its statement on Friday, the Israeli military said its forces had killed 14 members of armed Palestinian groups in Jenin over the past week and a half. It also said it had detained more than 30 people suspected of being members of the group or planning attacks and had recovered weapons and explosives from them.
It also said it had carried out four airstrikes, a type of attack that was rare in the West Bank before the Hamas-led attack on Israel last October 7.
Some of Jenin’s residents who had made a dangerous escape from their neighborhood over the past 10 days returned on Friday morning to survey the aftermath of the Israeli attack. They were also able to check on loved ones they couldn’t reach because phone lines were down, residents said.
“Some are burying martyrs or visiting someone injured or checking their house or shop,” said Nidal Naghnaghia, who fled Janine with his family soon after the raids began.
Many have found homes so badly damaged they are no longer habitable, and streets so ravaged by bulldozers that cars are impassable, residents said.
Khulud Jabar, a 39-year-old mother of three, said it appeared people had been freed from their homes as they poured into the streets, surveying the damage. What they saw was as if nothing was left, she said.
“There is so much devastation, you cannot describe it. They did not leave any shop unscathed,” she said. “What crime did the owners of these shops commit? What does a power pole have to do with anything? What does water have to do with anything?” She stepped forward.
But Ms Jaber added that she was delighted to see the townspeople banding together to rebuild, even as she feared Israeli forces would soon return.
Some residents were less optimistic, worrying that any attempt to rebuild would be crushed again in the next Israeli attack.
“It will all happen again sooner or later,” said Ismail Bani Gharra, 25, who returned to Jenin on Friday. Of Israeli forces, he said: “They will come again, there will be more raids, and more people will be killed.”
Post Residents are taking stock of one of the most devastating West Bank raids in years. appeared first New York Times.