What led to the Israeli operation in the Jenin camp ?
During the ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank, the city of Jenin and its neighboring refugee camps are being targeted by Israeli forces, marking the most significant assault since the second Intifada.
Currently, Jenin city, which accommodates approximately 50,000 Palestinians, is being encircled by Israeli forces as part of a broader offensive that includes attacks on Jenin, Nablus, Tubas, and Tulkarem. This operation has resulted in the killing of at least 10 Palestinians and several injuries.
Hospitals have been blocked by dirt barriers, while troops have encircled other medical institutions.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), which holds nominal responsibility for the territory, issued a statement expressing concern over the blockade of hospitals and warned about possible ‘’repercussions’’ if there are attempts to forcefully enter them.
Jenin has frequently been the target of Israeli military invasions, which, according to Zaid Shuabi, a Palestinian human rights organizer in the West Bank, resemble the situation in Gaza but on a smaller level.
“You don’t see roads because they’re destroyed. The infrastructure … the sewage and electricity system and the water pipes and telecommunication networks are damaged,” Shuhabi said.
Attacks on Jenin by Israel are nothing new.
Throughout the ongoing storm in the West Bank, Jenin has been repeatedly targeted, from the most recent attack to the violence of the second Intifada that occurred from 2000 to 2005.
Roughly 14,000 people call the Jenin refugee camp home. They are almost all descendants of the Palestinians who lost everything when Israel was established in 1948.
The situation at the camp is extremely difficult. Jenin has the greatest unemployment and poverty rates among the ten camps in the occupied West Bank, according to UNRWA, the agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees.
The Israeli attack on the refugee camp in January of last year was a major story around the world. One Palestinian grandmother, Majida Obaid, was among the ten killed during the assault.
Israeli forces have destroyed entire neighborhoods in their repeated attacks, alleging that the neighborhoods were hiding fighters. In the process, Israeli forces punish civilians by killing, arresting, or displacing them from their homes.
Jenin suffered significant devastation during the second Intifada.
In 2002, Israel initiated a major military assault targeting the Jenin refugee camp, which was the site of some of the most severe violence during the period of unrest.
In April of that year, Israeli troops, commando forces, and assault helicopters engaged in battle with lightly armed resistance fighters and encountered homemade booby traps across the civilian encampment. Rights groups subsequently condemned the Israeli response as "disproportionate".
A United Nations report, released subsequently in the same year, indicated that 52 Palestinians were killed, with up to half of them being civilians.
Israel lost 23 soldiers.
Jenin is home to multiple armed groups, one of which is the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Hamas, the governing authority in the Gaza Strip, and the armed faction of Fatah led by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, also have a presence in the camp. The fighters in the camp operate under the collective name of the Jenin Brigades.
“These groups [in Jenin] started as a community defence mechanism, so the more violent Israel’s raids got and the more systemic, the bigger these groups grew,” explained Tahani Mustafa, an Israel-Palestine analyst with the International Crisis Group, earlier this year.
According to her, the young men who become part of these organizations are responding to Israel's escalating control of the occupied territories and are disenchanted with the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank and is seen as a collaborator with Israel by many Palestinians.
According to Shuabi, a Palestinian human rights activist, the prospect of a regular wage and the chance to "die with honor" motivated an increased number of young men to join the resistance.
She said:
“Families of martyrs – even if they are feeling pain – understand why their brothers [or sons] or other family members are getting involved in the resistance,”
“Even if they’re not a member of the resistance, they’re being targeted. They figure that they might as well die with pride by being a member of the resistance.”
The perception of Jenin as a hub of resistance is frequently seen in the Israeli parliament, known as the Knesset.
In December of the previous year, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir justified the actions of Israeli soldiers who utilized a mosque's loudspeaker during a military operation in Jenin to transmit Jewish religious songs to the surrounding community.
In June of the same year, following several invasions into the region, Israel's extremist Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, advocated for complete military mobilization in the town, which would involve the deployment of tanks and air support. This request came after seven Israeli soldiers sustained injuries during the fighting in that area.
During that operation, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians.
Ori Goldberg, a political analyst based in Tel Aviv, asserts that the Israeli public, having developed a perception of themselves as victims, overlooks the fact that Jenin is a refugee camp.
“No, humanitarian issues and the Palestinian plight don’t really matter to the Israelis,” he stated. “You hear expressions such as ‘nest of terrorism’ and other dehumanising expressions about Jenin more than you do anywhere else.”
According to Goldberg, Israel's military presence has been increasing more rapidly around the refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem since the start of the war on Gaza
“It’s part of the same cycle,” he elaborated, explaining how the presence of armed resistance in Jenin has consistently triggered a predictable reaction from Israel's legislators and the general public of “Oh, Jenin. That’s bad. We should do something”, before calls for military action are voiced and details of any accusation are provided.