Aljazeera.net correspondents
Nablus- The successive raids have deprived the citizens of Nour Shams camp of their most basic privacy in many details of their daily lives in the camp near the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank, especially since the launch of the recent “summer camps” operation, which was described as the most violent among more than 40 raids carried out by Israel against the camp since the war on Gaza on October 7. Citizen Firas Khalifa (48 years old) accompanies About 14 thousand people live in Nour Shams Shaour camp. Fear and anxiety with every incursion by the occupation army.
Collection of suffering images
This feeling “can only be described by those who have experienced it,” Khalifa told Tel Aviv Tribune Net. “My family, my elderly parents and I live in constant tension. We lose stability and security and we keep waiting for our turn to be stormed by soldiers. Moving from one house to another is a pre-emptive death sentence by snipers.”
Sleep increases the tragedy of Khalifa and his family, as they do not know the taste of sleep. Their night has turned into day, and they have begun to take turns sleeping among themselves, fearing any sudden raid like the previous one, in which they will be exposed to the soldiers’ abuse, the destruction of the house’s furniture, and the burning of the house as well.
“The soldiers gathered the pictures of his brothers, the prisoners and martyrs (Fursan and Faris Khalifa), that were hanging on the walls of the house and burned them inside one of the rooms, almost causing a massacre,” Khalifa says.
Although Khalifa can endure the occupation’s abuse and aggression, he and his family of 8, in addition to his parents, cannot endure hunger, especially since he, like many in the camp, has been out of work since the beginning of the war and can barely find enough to satisfy his hunger.
If he could provide his home with some food, he would limit himself to the most basic and necessary items, such as legumes and flour, in small quantities. Khalifa described how The women gathered in one of the neighbors’ houses. In the last invasion a few days ago, They brought whatever flour they had, kneaded it, baked it, and distributed it, while the occupation obstructed the entry of aid.
Khalifa rarely goes out to visit family and friends in the camp, and if he does, the visit is to check on them, and in a quick and brief manner, immediately after the army withdraws, for fear of a renewed assault.
Khalifa has not left the camp since October 7, whether to look for work in the city of Ramallah as he was before the war or even for treatment. He is the brother of two martyrs, one of whom is called Fursan, who was martyred in his exile in Gaza, and the other, Faris, was accused by the occupation of carrying out an operation at the Anab checkpoint east of Tulkarm.He says that he had surgery on his shoulder before the war and was supposed to see a doctor in Ramallah but did not.
It was almost impossible to provide treatment and medicine, transport patients, and provide them with first aid. This cost some their lives, and forced citizens to borrow the medicines they needed from each other.
The details of daily suffering are a common denominator experienced by all the camp’s residents. Basic services, such as electricity, are constantly cut off, while sewage overflows between the destroyed roads, which citizens can barely move on foot.
Escape from the “Karakon”
In another scene, the suffering of the young man Amer Salim and his brothers went beyond the storming of their home and the destruction of its furniture, or even the cutting off of water, electricity, and the Internet through which they know the latest news about them. To avoid the soldiers’ arrogance and abuse, they left their home and left their parents behind.
As soon as he hears any news about the occupation army storming the camp, Amer and his seven brothers leave the camp. They no longer have the strength to bear the oppression of the occupation, which now dominates them and dozens of young men with every storming of the camp. They are detained in a tile factory yard near the camp, which they have come to call “Karakon” due to the horror of the abuse they face there.
Amer says, “At first, I refused to leave the house, and I did not listen to my brothers’ advice. The soldiers arrested me, took me away handcuffed and blindfolded, and held me in that condition for 25 continuous hours in the Karakoun.”
Inside an equipment warehouse in an area adjacent to Nour Shams camp, Amer spends the entire period of the invasion, whether it is long or short. From there, he watches the army’s incursion into the camp, and when it withdraws, he quickly returns to check on his family.
One martyr after another
What happened to Mamoun Abu Al-Haija and his family made him not care about any other suffering, such as lack of food or drink, or the interruption of services, especially electricity, water, and other necessities of life.
Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, Abu Al-Haija lost his eldest son, Uday (14 years old), as a martyr in an Israeli bombardment on a group of children playing with stones. Fourteen Palestinians were martyred at once, and their departure saddened their families and the entire camp. The occupation continued its aggression, killing his uncle, Ayed (62 years old), after sniping him inside the house during the last invasion a few days ago.
With sorrow, Abu Al-Haija recounts the circumstances of his uncle Ayed’s martyrdom, telling Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “A soldier shot him with a bullet that penetrated his head, and he remained covered in blood for more than two hours.” He added, “My daughter climbed through the window of the house to check on him and send him food, as he lived on the ground floor and the house was surrounded by the army and snipers, and she found that he had been martyred.”
In the Manshiyya neighborhood, where Abu al-Haija lives, soldiers turned his family’s home into a military barracks and a passageway to neighboring homes, after they blew up its walls and demolished them, in a new-old policy that Israel calls “from house to house” to secure the movement of soldiers, and which led to the complete or partial destruction of more than 70% of the citizens’ homes in the neighborhood, according to Nihad al-Shawish from the camp’s services committee.