On May 21, Amr Musara went to report on the Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The 25-year-old videographer worked with three Palestinian colleagues – all visibly identified as journalists.
The Israeli army shot at them.
Musara was shot in the back as his colleagues fell to the ground for cover. When the soldiers stopped shooting, Musara was rushed to the nearest hospital.
“I thought I was going to die,” Musara told Tel Aviv Tribune by telephone from his home where he is recovering from his injuries.
Musara said Israel regularly shot journalists across the West Bank.
“They targeted us the same way they targeted Shireen,” Musara said.
Israeli forces shot dead Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh while reporting on a raid in Jenin in May 2022. A United Nations investigative body concluded the killing was deliberate.
“There was no danger (for Israeli soldiers) around us. There were no resistance fighters.
“They just shot us.”
Patterns of violence
Since launching its war on Gaza on October 7, Israel has killed 516 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
According to an investigation by the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and the London-based research group Forensic Architecture, Israel typically sends undercover soldiers into West Bank cities to monitor and assess the area before the army arrives. army or special forces.
Last week, several undercover Israeli soldiers posing as Palestinians entered Jenin and took up positions among houses to inspect the camp.
The next morning, the army stormed the Jenin refugee camp with tanks, jeeps and bulldozers. The bulldozers were sent to destroy shops, roads and homes, said journalist and camp resident Atef Abdul Rub.
“They started shooting at a school, at the students and at the teachers,” Abdul Rub told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Ten civilians were killed during the latest Israeli incursion into the camp, including a teenager and a doctor.
Israel has carried out repeated raids on the Jenin refugee camp for years, apparently to eliminate an umbrella organization of armed groups known as the Jenin Brigades, which opposes the Israeli occupation.
Israeli forces typically destroy entire neighborhoods, claiming they are sheltering fighters. Civilians are punished in the process – killed, arrested or made homeless, residents and activists told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“What I saw in the Jenin camp resembles Gaza on a smaller scale,” said Zaid Shuabi, a Palestinian human rights organizer in the West Bank.
“We can’t see the roads because they are destroyed. Infrastructure, … sewerage and electricity networks as well as water pipes and telecommunications networks are damaged.
Since January 2023, 88 people have been killed in the Jenin camp and 104 structures have been destroyed, according to the UN.
Resistance
Since 2021, a new cohort of Palestinian armed groups has emerged in the West Bank. In the Jenin camp, the Jenin Brigades clashed with Israeli troops in dozens of raids.
The group is loosely made up of fighters linked to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Fatah, according to Tahani Mustafa, an expert on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Belgian think tank.
“These groups (in Jenin) started as a community defense mechanism, so the more violent and systemic the Israeli raids became, the bigger these groups grew,” Mustafa told Tel Aviv Tribune.
She said young men who join these groups are reacting to Israel’s growing occupation and are disillusioned with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which administers the occupied West Bank and is seen as an Israeli auxiliary by many Palestinians.
The PA engaged in security cooperation with Israel under the 1993 Oslo Accords, from which it was born.
Some senior Fatah officials in the PA support and finance certain Fatah factions in the Jenin Brigades in order to increase their influence in any future power struggle to control the PA, Mustafa added.
The ICG has long warned of a violent succession struggle in the Palestinian Authority when President Mohamad Abbas, 88, steps down or dies.
Mustafa said other members of the Jenin Brigades are also part of the Palestinian Authority security forces, which pays them a monthly salary.
“Originally, when the (Palestinian Authority) security forces were designed by the Americans and the Israelis, the idea was to use the security forces as a means…to disarm radical (fighters) and to give them work in exchange for laying down their weapons,” she said. said.
“Now, obviously, in the context of the occupation, that’s not going to work. Many of these guys have jobs – a monthly salary – but continue to resist.
“Die with pride”
Some young men join armed groups to receive a salary. JIP pays its members between $1,000 and $3,000 per month, Mustafa said.
Financial incentives attracted young men from outside the camp.
“What we’ve seen since last July is a lot of these guys are coming from other localities… which then creates a contentious relationship because it’s one thing if you’re (a civilian) dying for ( the actions) of your brother or son.
“It’s another to not know who these guys are,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Shuabi said Israel was punishing civilians in the camp in the hope that they will turn against the resistance fighters. He explained that Israel is intentionally destroying neighborhoods, roads and homes as part of a broader strategy to gradually displace Palestinians from the Jenin camp.
In July, a major Israeli operation against the camp resulted in the displacement of 3,000 people, according to the UN.
Those who remained in the camp faced a severe lack of services after Israel deliberately destroyed water pumps and electricity networks.
Shuabi believes that the Israeli strategy is backfiring.
More and more young Palestinians are joining resistance groups to avenge their loved ones or to defend their families and communities against Israeli raids, he said.
“The families of the martyrs – even if they feel pain – understand why their brothers (or sons) or other family members get involved in the resistance,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“Even if they are not resistant, they are targeted. They think they might as well die proudly being resistant. »