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Jenin, Occupied West Financial institution – Months forward of the twentieth anniversary of the April 9, 2002 Israeli assault on the Jenin refugee camp, Israeli operations and arrests in and across the occupied West Financial institution metropolis of Jenin have been on the rise.
On the day of the anniversary, Israeli forces launched a large-scale raid on the camp, situated within the coronary heart of Jenin metropolis. As Palestinian fighters responded, the raid culminated in two hours of heavy road preventing that left one Palestinian fighter useless and 13 others wounded.
The escalation introduced again recollections of lethal confrontations that befell 20 years in the past, when an Israeli ambush on the camp killed at the very least 52 Palestinians, together with ladies and youngsters, in accordance with a Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation. There have been additionally 23 Israeli troopers killed and several other others injured.
That day, 20 years in the past, marked a turning level for Jenin – the town and the camp – making it a logo of resistance for Palestinians.
“There are two locations in Palestine that Israel has by no means been capable of absolutely conquer – Jenin and Gaza,” Diana Buttu, a Palestinian political analyst and lawyer informed Al Jazeera.
“That’s why Israelis attempt to deliver down the folks of Jenin and Gaza… time and time once more, nevertheless it’s by no means labored,” she added.
Months of escalation
Though Israeli assaults on Jenin have been extra sporadic since 2002, latest months have confirmed an uptick in Israeli violence and raids in Jenin.
In February, a search operation carried out by Israeli forces and involving the Palestinian Authority (PA) focused about 25 males in Jenin, and noticed many household houses raided and dozens of individuals arrested.
Every week earlier than the anniversary, on April 2, Israeli safety forces killed three Palestinian males in a predawn shoot-out in Jenin. Israeli authorities mentioned the boys – later recognized as members of the Islamic Jihad’s armed wing – have been “concerned in terrorist exercise in opposition to safety forces”.
The Israeli military (IDF) mentioned the forces discovered weapons within the space and arrested a number of Palestinians suspected of “terror” exercise, in accordance with Israeli media.
The raids coincided with a collection of shootings in Israel which have occurred since March 22, which left 14 Israelis useless in 4 separate assaults led by Palestinians – two of whom have been from Jenin.
On April 7, 28-year-old Raad Hazem, from Jenin refugee camp, opened hearth in a crowded Tel Aviv bar, killing three Israelis and wounding 10 others. Hazem was shot useless shortly after the incident, his household house was raided and demolished, and his father has been on the run as Israeli forces proceed their seek for him.
Solely every week earlier on March 29, Diaa Hamarsheh from the village of Ya’dangerous, just a few kilometres exterior of Jenin, killed 5 folks within the ultra-orthodox city of Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv.
Since then, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has granted “all safety forces full freedom” throughout operations, with the intention of stopping future assaults.
For Israelis, the town is taken into account a hub for “terrorist exercise” fairly than resistance.
Israel additionally imposed financial sanctions on Jenin, revoked journey permits for residents working exterior the town, closed off roads connecting Jenin to different elements of the occupied West Financial institution, and elevated lethal raids, arrests, and focused killings in and across the metropolis, its residents informed Al Jazeera.
Below the restrictions, Israel closed checkpoints and prevented journey between Jenin – often called Palestine’s bread basket – and Israel, leaving many retailers and employees within the metropolis reduce off from their sources of earnings.
Regardless of the grim image the collection of occasions has drawn, Jenin residents informed Al Jazeera that the previous few months had “revived the spirit of resistance”, and refreshed recollections of Jenin’s emergence as a hub for Palestinian resistance.
“Jenin can solely exist inside the context of the resistance, with its historical past of perseverance, refusal to lift a white flag, and insistence on preventing again,” mentioned the governor of Jenin and member of the Fatah motion, Akram Rajoub.
A Palestinian mom and camp resident, who wished to stay nameless for safety causes, agreed: “Jenin has and all the time will probably be a supply of Palestinian resistance.”
‘Returning to its roots’
Established to accommodate Palestinians expelled through the Nakba of 1948 – when greater than 750,000 Palestinians have been compelled from their houses to make manner for the institution of Israel – Jenin refugee camp has remained probably the most vibrant a part of the town, regardless of being levelled throughout Israel’s assault through the 2002 Intifada.
The doorway to the half-square-kilometer space, which is house to roughly 14,000 refugees and dozens of Palestinian fighters belonging to the Islamic Jihad and Fatah actions, is adorned with a key symbolising the Palestinian proper of return. Flags of the varied Palestinian factions on the camp adorn the gates, and posters of Palestinian prisoners and “martyrs” are plastered throughout the camp partitions.
“They’re our heroes,” Khader Adnan, a frontrunner within the Islamic Jihad motion informed Al Jazeera, as he pointed to the faces on the posters. “They’re reminders of what our children wish to be: resistance fighters.”
When tensions flared in Jerusalem in Might final yr over Israeli raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque compound through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and makes an attempt to expel Palestinian households from their houses in occupied East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, the warmth was instantly felt in Jenin.
Masked males belonging to Fatah and the Islamic Jihad paraded within the camp to indicate their help and readiness to battle.
Just a few months later, six Jenin residents escaped from the maximum-security Israeli jail of Gilboa in September.
Whereas the boys have been on the run, camp fighters tried to help the escaped prisoners by finishing up shootings at Israeli checkpoints and launching demonstrations vowing revenge if the boys have been damage.
Reflecting on Jenin’s historical past as a centre for armed Palestinian teams, Adnan mentioned: “Jenin has all the time been a hub for our motion and different resistance factions.
“A lot of our youths consider in preventing till the final breath,” he added, as he named a number of well-known fighters belonging to the motion’s armed wing, the al-Quds Brigades.
“The continued Israeli crackdown constructed Jenin’s character, and what we see right this moment, is Jenin returning to its roots of resistance,” he informed Al Jazeera.
‘By no means labored’
In line with Buttu, the Palestinian analyst, Israeli and PA makes an attempt to regulate Jenin have all the time failed.
Once more likening Jenin to Gaza – a spot Israel considers an ongoing risk to its safety – Buttu mentioned the 2 have been the one locations Israel withdrew settlements as a result of it “calculated that it was going to be far too expensive to take care of a presence – not financially, however by way of lives”.
Earlier than the PA got here to energy after the Oslo settlement in 1993, Israel typically focused Jenin as a spot to regulate, “nevertheless it by no means labored”, mentioned Buttu. “When the PA got here, their best problem by way of crushing the resistance has been in Jenin.”
For years, Israel and the PA have coordinated efforts to deliver Jenin beneath their management. Within the newest try forward of the latest flare up in violence, the PA launched an arrest marketing campaign within the camp in December final yr. Whereas it insisted that the marketing campaign was a safety operations to stamp out thugs, residents mentioned it aimed to to crush the resistance.
For Adnan, the Islamic Jihad chief, the explanations are easy. “[The] Israelis are afraid that our spirit of resistance may attain different elements of Palestine. That’s why they maintain hounding us.
“However these repeated arrests, raids, and sanctions solely make us stronger, extra united and decided to hold on,” he added.
Additional reporting by Rima Mustafa from Jenin, occupied West Financial institution.
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