Civilians flee Jenin camp as Israeli offensive continues

The first families have begun moving out of the Jenin camp, which has been sealed off for nearly four days by an Israeli military operation.

There was fierce fighting inside the camp on Saturday, with clashes said to have taken place in the central Damaj neighbourhood, where armed groups have a strong presence, as well as near the camp entrance.

Over the gunfire, under the constant buzz of military drones, the silhouettes of several women and children glided past Israeli military vehicles. Alone on the deserted road, among the military trucks, they looked small and lost.

Oruba Shalabi, scared and heartbroken, holding her two-month-old daughter, told us what they experienced inside the camp.

“They shot at us and threw grenades into the house,” she said. “Half of our house was blown up. We hid in the kitchen and screamed to tell them we had a baby.”

Oruba said she went to the door to tell them that the children inside were scared and having trouble breathing because of the smoke.

“They told us we had two minutes to get out,” she said. “They checked our phones and IDs, made us stand in the sun for half an hour, then told us to go straight ahead.”

Oruba left by road, as she had done before, with her mother, aunt, sister and niece. It was the first time they had been able to leave their home since Tuesday night.

“No electricity or water [in the camp]”They shot anyone who came near the window. All our neighbors were thrown out and we were all locked in one room. They made the young men sit on the floor and tied them up.”

Fighting in Jenin escalated on Saturday. The Palestinian Red Crescent said there were at least two bodies inside the camp that it had not been able to recover. The Palestinian Health Ministry said one of them was an elderly man.

There were also unconfirmed reports of Israeli military casualties. A statement from one of the armed groups – the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – claimed its fighters had engaged soldiers in an ambush in Damaj.

This week’s Israeli campaign began with attacks on several towns and refugee camps in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. Over the past three days, the focus of that campaign has narrowed to Jenin, with troops withdrawing from Tulkarem and Tubas.

Early Friday morning, the Israeli army confronted and killed the man it said was the head of Hamas in Jenin, Wissam Khazem and two other men are wanted for assault with a firearm.

But the operation is still ongoing, with reports of Israeli forces moving deeper into the camp to search house-to-house for other wanted men.

Israel said it killed 20 armed militants in the operation and seized weapons including M16 rifles and explosive devices.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said 20 people had been killed across the West Bank. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said children were among the dead.

One of those killed was an 82-year-old man whose body was found with nine gunshot wounds on Friday, a paramedic told the BBC.

Israel says it is a counter-terrorism operation aimed at dismantling Palestinian militant groups it believes are backed by Iran.

A failed bombing in Tel Aviv earlier this month also raised alarm bells in Israel that the threat of suicide attacks in Israeli cities is resurgent.

Overnight, the Israeli military said there had been two attempted attacks on settlements in the southern West Bank. The army’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, said the ongoing operation in Jenin was aimed at preventing exactly such attacks.

Tensions over the Gaza War – and the continued military incursions into the West Bank – are changing attitudes and tactics here on both sides. They risk pushing the conflict here into a new and more dangerous phase.