Nablus- Since the Abu Hamdan family left their home in Balata camp in Nablus 10 months ago, they have not returned to it. The house that was blown up by the Israeli occupation army is no longer fit for habitation, and the family has become dispersed in their home that they rented on the outskirts of the camp, hoping to return to their home that the occupation soldiers did not abandon. Even after it was demolished.
Like other camps in the northern West Bank, especially the cities of Jenin and Tulkarm, Balata Palestinian refugee camp, east of Nablus, faces repeated incursions by the Israeli occupation army, sometimes reaching two or three times in one day, and extending for long hours, leaving destruction and devastation that warn of a greater danger facing the camp, amid veiled threats. It publicly threatened the population if they supported the resistance or embraced it in one way or another.
With every incursion of the occupation army into the camp, the Abu Hamdan family experiences a tragedy in detention and field investigation, in addition to threats from Israeli intelligence officers. Many people are now facing the same thing, especially the families of those persecuted and wanted by the occupation, which has made them lose their safety.
Constant threat
About 10 months ago, the Abu Hamdan family experienced a tragedy no less than the occupation’s assassination of two of its resistant sons after they were being chased. The Israeli forces stormed their house, blew it up, and displaced the family to the outskirts of the camp in a way that tore them apart. All of this was preceded by raids, field investigations, and detention of family members, as well as direct threats and intimidation by Israeli intelligence officers.
Ahmed Abu Hamdan said while he was standing looking at the ruins of the completely burnt house, demolished by the bombing, and flipping through what remained of the charred clothes and toys of his children and siblings, “The occupation made us lose the feeling of safety in the house even after it was demolished, and returning to it became a dream for us, as if we were destined to stay.” “Displaced people.”
Ahmed (34 years old) adds that the occupation punished the entire family and still does, and after killing his two brothers and demolishing the house, they became a target for the occupation soldiers whenever they stormed the camp or happened to pass through its military checkpoints, “the last of which was when the soldiers at the Beit Furik military checkpoint assaulted my brother by beating him, because they kept pictures of To my brothers, the martyrs, on their phones, and once again they shot my brother at the Deir Sharaf checkpoint, west of the city,” Ahmed continues.
Displacement and incursions
Abu Hamdan’s family is threatened by the threat of Israeli demolition again, or of it being used as a military point and center for operations. “The occupation is like a cancer, no one is safe from it,” Abu Hamdan describes.
The situation that Abu Hamdan’s family is living in has become like that of many families in Balata camp, coinciding with the occupation’s incursions and military operations, as well as its threats, through leaflets thrown among the residents, to take revenge on the camp if it continues to support and shelter the resistance.
The Abu Atta family, one of whose members was being pursued by the occupation, faced the same fate, and was displaced from their home in the wake of these incursions that did not stop, along with about 20 people who lived in the building consisting of several floors, and while his brothers were displaced, only Abu Atta and two of his sons remained to face the storming and destruction of the house. And his furniture is destroyed every time.
Abu Atta told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “The occupation soldiers were destroying the house with axes and huge hammers (cradles), as if they were taking revenge on us. They also attacked the neighbors and the houses surrounding our house, as if the circle of punishment was expanding to include everyone.”
Since the war on Gaza more than a year ago, the Balata camp, which is inhabited by more than 33,000 Palestinian refugees and is known as the largest among the West Bank camps, has been subjected to an unprecedented Israeli attack, through more than 100 major incursions that were recorded.
Although there were dozens of incursions that were also not documented, with the massive damage they caused, they did not reach the level of the Jenin and Tulkarm camps, where life was almost completely paralyzed, after the occupation destroyed the infrastructure and inflicted on those camps losses estimated at millions of dollars.
State of consciousness
Imad Zaki, head of the Balata Camp Services Committee, says that the occupation plans, through its incursions, which more than doubled after the war on Gaza, to displace the camp, voluntarily or by force, through its various mechanisms and tools, and thus to end the refugee issue politically, taking advantage of the difficult economic and social situation to implement its plans.
In its attack on Balata camp after October 7, 2023, the occupation destroyed about 180 homes completely or partially, displaced many families, killed 22 citizens and injured hundreds, a large portion of whom suffer from difficult health conditions. It also arrested and detained dozens.
With the occupation’s continued threats to invade the camp, Zaki fears that the conditions will get worse inside the camp or that the occupation’s goals will expand to cause greater destruction, under the pretext of searching for wanted persons to end the state of resistance there, as he did in many camps.
Zaki and other leading figures in the camp are betting on several things that may prevent a major Israeli invasion that will cause destruction to the camp, the first of which is the occupation’s fear of the reaction of the entire camp’s population, resistance and others, against the occupation and its institutions, and secondly the camp’s terrain and what it could play in thwarting the occupation’s plans.
Thirdly, the state of awareness that has been formed among the people of the camp and their knowledge of the objectives of the occupation, in addition to the awareness of the young generation about the method, method and tools of resistance, and even choosing its place far from what justifies the occupation and gives it an excuse to commit its massacres and crimes, “but without dropping the option of resistance or preventing it at all,” Zaki tells Tel Aviv Tribune Net.
Being isolated in the camp destroys it
Zaki questions the absence of Palestinian organizations and their supposed role in resistance work, and holds them responsible for not determining the compass and making a decision about the resistance until now, whether by expanding it to include all of the West Bank, or repositioning and preparing it in a smart way to confront the brutality of the occupation.
He explains this by saying, “Because limiting resistance work to a specific geographical spot means the occupation is singling it out and destroying it demographically and socially, which is what it did in the Jenin and Tulkarm camps and more.”
Zaki points out that the occupation is taking revenge on the Balata camp and targeting it directly, and it does not hide its intention and plans, “Otherwise, how do we explain the occupation’s constant targeting and sniping of anything moving during any incursion, and its targeting of civilians and ambulance crews? It wants to end any incubator of resistance.”
In the face of all this, the occupation spares no effort in pursuing the resistance fighters inside and outside the camp, targeting them with direct bombing and assassination, and through its special forces, and in return, they insist on continuing their struggle against it.
