While Israeli tanks roll over in Jenin, Palestinians are preparing for a long -lasting invasion | Israel-Palestine News of Conflict

Jenin, occupied West Coast – A bunch of people gathered to watch two massive armored bulldozers enter the refugee camp of Jenin, separating asphalt to clean The way for three Israeli tank.

“This is the first time I have seen the tank with my own eyes,” said the young man, his voice a mixture of awe and disbelief, as the sun sets over one of the entrance to the camp on Sunday.

Before him, two massive bulldozers stamped forward, destroying repeatedly below them. The refugee camp, almost emptied after weeks of relentless attacks, was organized by another military invasion.

Ahmed, born in Jenin in 2003 in the midst of another intifada, was previously witnessing military invasions. But Israeli tanks have not been seen on the streets of Jenin since 2002, when that uprising began, and the Israelis seem to be planning to keep.

Ahmed stood among a group of young men and boys on Haifa Street, near one of the entrance to the camp.

“It won’t be easy for them to stay,” he murmured as heavy machines continued their work.

More than an hour, journalists, locals and nearby Israeli military jeep noticed in silence as the bulldozers dismantled the roundabout on Haifa Street. Then, as the last pieces of debris were pushing aside, the tanks of the tanks of Merkava were hoarse, and the armored vehicles began to progress to the city.

The young man who was standing nearby, when asked if he was expecting immediate resistance, shook his head. “I don’t think so. There is no one at the camp, not even fighters. “

Tanks and stones

Nevertheless, while the tanks pressed against the refugee camp, a famous scene took place.

Groups of Palestinian youth and children, armed with no stones, threw them into the tanks that approach. In response, the operator of one of the tanks directed his top and dome directly in a crowd of journalists and viewers. A moment later, the air filled with tearful, scattering the young men and children who gathered.

Israel spent almost daily raids On the occupied west coast from 2022; His goal was to weaken the armed Palestinian groups of resistance there. Of War in Gaza Started in October 2023, Israel increased the deadly force it uses on the west coast, using helicopters, drones and now tanks.

The last intensification of the violence in Jenin began on January 21, but the Israeli forces also attacked elsewhere, including Qatatiya and Tulkarem. On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that he had instructed the army to “prepare for a long stay in cleaned camps for next year, preventing residents from returning and stopping terrorism not to be repeated.”

Among those who watched the tanks disappear at the camp was a young man who had been displaced only a few weeks earlier. He stood in silence, his face tense with uncertainty. “Once again, we don’t know what happens,” he said. “For now, I have a house where I stay, but many people have nowhere to sleep tonight.”

Saving things

According to the Assistance and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), more than 40,000 Palestinians are forcibly displaced from their homes on the west coast, and Israeli forces refuse to allow them to return.

The blockade at the Jenin camp is followed by a weekly siege, during which initially Palestinian administration forces And then the Israeli army imposed serious limitations for movement, cut off water and electricity into a camp.

Many families were at once forced to escape, leaving behind their belongings, including a group of women who started Jenin’s destroyed streets filled with mud.

Gathered at one of the entrances to the camp, they planned to return to their homes and grab some of what they were forced to leave.

Faces tired, muddy shoes and surrounded by bags they will use to collect their things, they waited to let them go.

But they were unsuccessful. Israeli soldiers who forced them to escape from their homes blocked them to go through the control points they set up using the ruins they created by destroying the streets in the camp.

“The policeman told us yesterday that we could come back today, but now he refuses to let us go inside,” said one of the women, a frustration that is visible in her voice.

Women did not want to give up and start walking with another access road, dwarf ruins and destruction that filled the narrow, muddy streets. They were warned to try again, however, to a ominous word: “Snipers!”

Only the clothes on the back

“We’ll come back one day,” said Halim Zawahida, as her smile opposed tired eyes and slow, mixed gait caused by lung cancer.

Halima was born at the Jenin refugee camp and lived there all her life, but Israeli soldiers threw her out of the house on January 22. She ran into violence, without any clothes on her back.

The 63-year-old can live vividly the jets flying over the head as the sound of the shooting filled the air, the bullets flying above their heads.

The Israeli forces killed 10 people that day, setting the tone for the weeks to come.

Now Halima, her brothers, sisters and nephews are – a total of eight people – all inserted into one room at the Gluh School of Science, which became a shelter for about 16 families vigorously expelled from a refuge camp.

Other families were forced to scatter around the town of Jenin, staying with their family or in any other space they were able to find.

But, said Halim, this is the biggest and smallest Israeli attack that has experienced in a camp that has seen more than enough Israeli raids over the last decades.

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

Halim hopes her house will still be partially standing; The windows and doors were filled and several walls were badly damaged or it fell.

In addition to the regular Israeli raids that have suffered for years, “we have been under siege for 45 days,” Halima said.

“There was no electricity, water, roads, shootings. We lived in the dark in the camp,” she added, referring to the attack of Palestinian forces that besieged Palestine in the camp before the Israeli invasion.

Halim has no idea when they will return home, as no one else is displaced in Jenin.

Israel continues to violate what would be considered red lines earlier, but with a few Garder and the administration of the United States that seem to actively support its actions, it faces several direct consequences.

Many observers believe that the ultimate goal of Israel is depopulated by the western coast of its Palestinian population, but in Gaza, where Israel has released the full strength of its army for 15 months, a similar goal has failed so far.

But even without a strategy, the military power of Israel directed towards Jenin’s people, brought the lives of thousands, without end in sight.

“What will he do?” One resident asked, Jameel. “Destroy all the camp? Do they want to make a hole in the ground and put us inside? “