Israeli troops withdrew from the city and refugee camp of Jenin on Friday, in the north of the occupied West Bank, after ten days of operation during which they killed at least 21 people, including children and elderly people, and injured dozens, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
So far, the Israeli military has not indicated whether this withdrawal marks a definitive end to the war. its “anti-terrorist operation” launched on August 28 in this cityas well as in northern Tulkarem and Tubas, all historic strongholds of Palestinian militias. Israeli forces stormed all three cities simultaneously with troops, tanks, bulldozers and even explosive drones “with the aim of dismantling the terrorist networks of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.”
Many streets, homes, shops and electrical infrastructure have been destroyed, while residents are now afraid of the return of the troops, they told Wafa today. More than 70% of the streets were devastated after the passage of Israeli armored vehicles, according to the municipality.
The raid on Jenin became one of the longest in the history of the Israeli army after lasting 10 consecutive days.
Journalists and photographers have reported attacks by Israeli troops while covering the Israeli incursion into the occupied Palestinian territory. One of them, photographer Muhamad Mansour of the Palestinian news agency Wafa, was shot and wounded last Tuesday, according to the outlet, after the Israeli army opened fire on the vehicle he was traveling in, west of Jenin.
The city is a historic stronghold of Palestinian armed resistance in the northern occupied West Bank. Some 14,000 people, descendants of Palestinians displaced after Israel's creation in 1948, live in its refugee camp, the majority of them unemployed youth.
In recent years, a new generation of Palestinians has joined the Jenin Brigade as activists, a loose and highly coordinated amalgam that includes members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs.
Across the West Bank, since October 7, the start of the war in Gaza and the increased repression in the rest of the occupied territories, more than 650 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including 150 minors.