Israel’s Attack on Jenin Continues
The occupying Israeli forces are continuing to expand their attacks on the occupied city of Jenin and the refugee camp there, which they launched on Wednesday, August 28. Jenin resembles a “ghost town” with its shuttered shops and empty streets. Armored military vehicles of the Israeli army are waiting in front of the Ibn Sina State Hospital near the Jenin Refugee Camp, which has been without electricity and water for three days. The hospital is under siege by the occupying forces and entrances and exits are tightly controlled.
As the Israeli occupying soldiers’ armored personnel carriers enter and exit the area, the soldiers force the medical teams and patients approaching the hospital to get out of their vehicles. They are allowed to pass after an ID check. Palestinian healthcare worker Sami Hannun, described the situation as quite challenging in his statement to the Anadolu Agency (AA) correspondent. He stated that soldiers stopped ambulances entering and leaving the camp and checked both the vehicles and the IDs.
Hannun said that people in Jenin Refugee Camp asked them for water, food and other needs and that they were trying to meet these needs as much as they could. “The people in the camp are in a difficult situation, there is no electricity or water,” he added. He also emphasized that as medical teams, they should be protected according to international law, but this situation is constantly being violated.
The Israeli army’s raid was not limited to the refugee camp, with soldiers surrounding the city’s Eastern (Sharki) neighborhood with armored vehicles. Reports say journalists who tried to approach the area were fired upon. Eyewitnesses report that Israeli construction equipment caused heavy destruction to infrastructure and Palestinian property in the area.
On August 28, Israel announced that it had launched its most intense and comprehensive attack, called “Summer Camps”, on refugee camps in the northern West Bank in the cities of Jenin, Tulkerim and Tubas since the “Second Intifada” in 2002. The occupying Israeli army first withdrew from the cities of Tubas and then Tulkerim. At least 19 Palestinians have been martyred in the attacks so far, dozens have been injured and 45 people have been detained.
