Gaza: While dozens of children are vaccinated against polio, others die in the incessant bombings
▲ Families returned to their homes yesterday to find only destruction following the Israeli military operation in Tulkarem, West Bank.Photo Xinhua
Reuters, Europa Press and AFP
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, September 7, 2024, p. 21
Jenin. The Israeli army withdrew from the city of Jenin yesterday, leaving behind a mass of damaged buildings and infrastructure, following one of the largest military incursions into the reoccupied West Bank.
Rubble-clearing teams removed mountains of rubble left by the operation, which involved hundreds of soldiers and police backed by helicopters and drones who entered all areas of the city and the adjacent refugee camp, as well as surrounding villages.
Thousands of residents were displaced from their homes during the nine-day operation, in which the Israeli military engaged in continuous firefights with Palestinian fighters from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah.
When they came in, they used bulldozers and started destroying everything. They left nothing behind.said Samaher Abu Nassa, a resident of Jenin.
Water and electricity services remain cut off and Israeli bulldozers have dug up 20 kilometres of road, a tactic the army said was intended to neutralise roadside bombs but which has devastated much of the city centre. A military statement said 30 roadside bombs had been dismantled. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused the army of transferring to the reoccupied West Bank the tactics used to raze the Gaza Strip.
Jenin in the northern West Bank has long been a stronghold of Palestinian armed factions, and Israel’s military said the operation, which included the town of Tulkarem, was aimed at thwarting activities by Iranian-backed militant groups planning attacks against Israeli civilians.
The army said its soldiers killed 14 fighters during the operation, including the local Hamas commander in Jenin; detained 30 suspects, confiscated weapons and dismantled infrastructure, including an underground weapons depot under a mosque and an explosives workshop.
Thousands of people joined funeral processions yesterday for the 21 people killed in total during the fighting in Jenin during the operation. Many were claimed as members of armed factions, but several were civilians with no involvement in the conflict, such as a 16-year-old girl who was shot by a sniper as she looked out of a window.
More than 680 Palestinians have died since October 7 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Meanwhile, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish-American activist, was killed by an Israeli bullet during a demonstration against settlements in the West Bank, as was Bana Amjad Bakr, a 13-year-old Palestinian teenager, both in the context of clashes between Israeli settlers and residents of the town of Qaryout, south of Nablus, the Wafa agency reported.
Hamas called it atrocious act the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, while the United States government deplored the death of the activist and indicated that it will act as needed.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Annalena Baerbock called on the Israeli government to end illegal settlement projects in the reoccupied West Bank.
In Gaza, while dozens of children are vaccinated against polio, others are dying in Israeli attacks, like Tala, found by her father among the rubble thanks to her pink skates, one of at least 12 Palestinians who have been killed in the last day.
The United Nations warned that the situation in Gaza It is more than catastrophicafter almost 11 months of war and stressed that the situation does not allow supporting the population at a level close to what is necessary.