Israeli raids on the Nur Shams and Fawwar refugee camps follow a series of deadly attacks that have killed more than 300 people in the West Bank since October 7, doctors and politicians say.
Fawwar, occupied West Bank — It was one o’clock in the evening when the injured began arriving at the Thabet Thabet government hospital in the town of Tulkarem.
There were six of them, all seriously injured, said Dr. Iyad al-Aqqad, medical director of the hospital. They were victims of an Israeli bombardment of the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem, in a raid that began on the night of December 26 and continued until the early hours of the next day.
It was the second time in 24 hours that Israeli forces stormed the camp, entering several homes and dropping at least two bombs, including on an industrial facility. Israeli soldiers are often accused – both in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip – of not allowing ambulances to quickly reach the wounded. This is also what happened in Nur Shams, witnesses and doctors say: a two-hour delay during which the six men were bleeding.
When they were brought to al-Aqqad hospital, it was too late to save them.
These six people joined a growing list of Palestinians killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers since October 7, when a Hamas attack on southern Israel sparked a deadly retaliatory war centered on – but without limit yourself to – Gaza. Since then, Israeli bombings and artillery attacks have killed more than 21,000 people in Gaza, while Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 300 people in the West Bank. At least 56 people were killed in Tulkarem governorate itself, according to the Shireen Observatory, a nonprofit organization that tracks killings and arrests by Israeli forces.
Tens of thousands more were injured in Gaza and the West Bank. Shortly after the arrival of the six victims of the Israeli bombing of Nur Shams on December 27, several other Palestinians injured by the attack were taken to the Thabet Thabet government hospital. Three of them had serious upper body injuries.
And they all had heartbreaking stories to tell the doctors.
Radwan Balibla, head of the Tulkarem Doctors’ Union, said a soldier stabbed one of the victims in the neck as she was taken to hospital in an ambulance. Others reported being beaten in ambulances.
“We told them: ‘We don’t want you to get to the hospital and survive,’” Balibla told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Hours later, Israel launched another raid, this time on the Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron. As Israeli troops entered homes and occupied the streets for hours, they clashed with residents and responded by opening fire.
Ahmed Muhammad Yaghi, 17, and Ibrahim Majed al-Titi, 31, were killed. Camp ambulance crews provided them with first aid and transferred them to Yatta Government Hospital, but they died from their serious injuries. Six other injured people were transferred to hospitals for treatment.
In an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune, the representative of the Fatah movement in the Fawwar camp, Muhammad Abu Esh, said that Israeli forces stormed the camp almost daily. The Israeli army has also closed the entrances to the camp since October 7, hampering the movement of Palestinians by preventing entry and exit. At the same time, in a context of increasingly frequent raids, the number of detainees has also increased to 100 in Fawwar.
Abu Esh said Israel deployed snipers inside buildings and homes during this week’s raid. Yet, he added, “Israel is mistaken if it thinks it is scaring the people of Al-Fawwar,” especially its children. “No attack ever will.”