Jenin, Tulkarem hold funerals after Israeli siege
Funerals have taken place in Jenin and Tulkarem since the Israeli army has lifted its siege of the occupied West Bank cities, allowing for the burials to take place.
Mohammad Abdullah Mohammad Kanaan, 15, who was killed on Tuesday morning by Israeli snipers during a three-day siege of the Tulkarem refugee camp, was buried after Friday prayers, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
The bodies of two men from the same area were being held by the Israeli army, it added.
Ten people were buried in Jenin after a 10-day siege – eight in the refugee camp and two in the city. According to Wafa, the Israeli army killed 21 Palestinians in the Jenin governorate during its incursion.
Palestinians assess damage in Jenin
Repairs in Jenin will take ‘months’ after Israeli raid: Mayor
As we’ve been reporting, Israeli forces announced their withdrawal from the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank this morning after a 10-day military operation that caused widespread destruction.
Jenin’s Mayor Nidal Obeidi described the raid as an “earthquake” to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
He told Wafa that Israeli bulldozers destroyed more than 20km (12.5 miles) of the city’s road network.
Obeidi said clearing the rubble left in the wake would take only days, but that repairs to the water and sewage networks damaged or destroyed would take months, adding that the city was completely cut off from water during the raid by the Israeli company that supplies it.
“What happened in Jenin comes within the policy of collective punishment of the Palestinians, and what the extent of the destruction shows indicates that the occupation aims to deport the population as part of a declared policy,” he told Wafa.
Palestinians watch as a bulldozer removes rubble from a street in Jenin
Jenin represents the ‘right of return’, making it an Israeli target
After a deadly and destructive 10-day military incursion, Israeli forces have pulled out of the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and residents have buried their dead.
Ibrahim Fraihat, an associate professor on conflict resolution at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said the camp was created after the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians from what is now Israel and it remains a powerful symbol of the right of return.
“Under international law, they have the right to return to their homes, so it is very important for them [the Israelis] to target these refugee camps,” Fraihat told Al Jazeera.
“The Israeli government wants to send a message that no one is immune, that all Palestinians are a target. It goes to the larger vision of depopulating these areas and to be in control of the West Bank.”
