UN condemns ‘unlawful killings’ and ‘enormous destruction’ in Jenin
The UN Human Rights Office demanded an immediate halt to Israeli military raids in the Jenin refugee camp.
In a statement, the office criticised Israel’s use of weapons and military tactics in the densely populated area, home to about 11,000 Palestinians.
The ongoing incursion in the Jenin camp and “adjacent parts of the city has led apparently to unlawful killings, insecurity for Palestinian residents, and enormous destruction of the camp”, it said.
Israel ‘can’t use the excuse of fighters to starve civilians’
Kenneth Roth, a visiting professor at the Princeton School for International Affairs, says Israel’s attacks on the occupied West Bank have become a “flat-out war” with far-right members of the government wanting to expel all Palestinians from the territory.
“Even though there’s extensive combat between Israeli forces and militants in the Jenin refugee camp, that doesn’t mean there are no rules – the Geneva Conventions still apply,” Roth told Al Jazeera.
“One of the basic rules is Israel has to allow access to humanitarian aid. So it can’t just cut off food, water, electricity and medical care – as we’ve heard it’s doing. It has a duty to allow those for the civilian population. It can’t use the excuse of the fighters to starve civilians, and that’s what it did in Gaza.”
‘The more we screamed, the more they shot,’ Jenin resident says
Oroba al-Shalabi said Israeli gunfire pelted her windows while she was holding a baby.
“We began screaming that we had small children, but they [Israeli soldiers] didn’t respond at first. The more we screamed, the more they shot at the house, shattering the TV and the windows around us,” she said.
The family cowered in their kitchen until soldiers entered, separating women and children from the men and searching everyone’s phones before letting her flee.
The medical charity MSF in a statement said it was alarmed by the scale and intensity of Israel’s incursion while noting that Israeli forces “obstructed access to health facilities and blocked – and even targeted – ambulances”.
Israeli forces shoot, wound child near Nablus
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has taken a 17-year-old Palestinian child to hospital after he was shot in the back by Israeli forces in the Askar camp, east of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.
The shooting took place as Israeli vehicles raided the camp and damaged streets and private property using a bulldozer, Wafa reported.
Israeli forces have killed at least 861 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and wounded some 14,196 people there since October, according to UN figures.
Israel’s military forcibly displaces Palestinians from their homes in Jenin: Report
Israeli forces used loudspeakers to order 20 Palestinian families to leave their homes in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
The news outlet, citing local sources, said the families lived near the Khalid bin al-Walid Mosque in the city of Jenin’s eastern neighbourhood, and had to travel through the mountains to seek refuge with relatives and villages in other parts of the Jenin governorate.
We reported earlier the Khalid bin al-Walid Mosque was one of several buildings attacked by Israeli forces during their ongoing operations in Jenin.
Palestinians ‘terrified’ as Israel’s raid on Jenin continues
Several residents of Jenin spoke to the AFP news agency on the conditions inside the besieged refugee camp as Israeli raids continue.
“It’s hard, it’s very hard for the children and for everyone else. We’re all scared, we’re terrified. Look at the destruction,” Faiza Abu Jaafar told the AFP, standing amid piles of rubble.
“We are living in dark days,” she said
Taher al-Saadi said the Israeli siege has cut Jenin “off from the world”.
“The water is cut off. The electricity is cut off, the sewage system is no longer working. All the infrastructure is destroyed, we no longer have any services that work,” he said.
“The bakeries are at a standstill. We can’t find milk for the children,” he added.
Palestinian families flee Jenin refugee camp
Palestinian families, including women and children, walk past Israeli military vehicles as they flee the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Saturday
Armoured Israeli military vehicles and armed soldiers have taken over the streets of Jenin during their ongoing siege on the city’s historic refugee camp
