Standing outside her home in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Saja Bawaqneh found herself in a familiar place – the same place where her father had been shot dead by Israeli forces a few years earlier.
This time, she was waiting for an Israeli army officer to signal that it was time for her to start walking to the city’s main hospital after being forced to leave her home, five days after Israeli soldiers – backed by helicopters and drones – launched a 10-day incursion into Jenin.
It was 1 a.m. and she was with her 60-year-old mother, her two sisters, her pregnant sister-in-law and her young niece and nephew.
Apart from a small bag containing the children’s essentials, they had nothing but the clothes on their backs.
This is not the first time that the Bawaqneh family home has been attacked, nor that the camp has been the target of attacks. But this latest incursion, which began nearly a week ago and lasted until the Israeli forces withdrew on Friday, was the most intense, described as an “earthquake” by residents of the town.
At least 34 Palestinians were killed in the latest operation, which also targeted Tulkarem and other areas in the northern West Bank, part of Israel’s continuing assault on the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip.
Israeli army bulldozers have ravaged large swathes of the city of Jenin, which has been under siege for more than a week, flattening streets and entire buildings. Although the Israeli army has since withdrawn, residents fear a return of the soldiers, who have temporarily set up camp at surrounding military checkpoints.
“It usually takes us 10 minutes to reach the hospital on foot, but because we were walking slowly with our hands in the air, and the streets were damaged, it took us much longer,” Bawaqneh, 29, told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Besieged, then moved
Bawaqneh and six other members of his family had been hiding in their kitchen since the incursion began on August 28. It was the safest place in their four-story home in the heart of the Jenin refugee camp, away from the large windows and Israeli snipers outside.
Unable to leave, they rationed food, water and medicine while stuck at home.
Five days after the raid began, a group of Israeli army soldiers stormed in after spending an hour firing live ammunition at the house and its surroundings.
“During the exchange of fire, we were crowded into a corner of our kitchen, stacked on top of each other,” Bawaqneh said, describing the gunfire as “loud and excessive.”
“We could hear the sounds of explosions and people screaming,” she said.
They were all tense, trying to imagine and prepare for every possible scenario that would follow this entry into the house.
“We checked that the children were dressed and had shoes on. We told them that we were about to leave because we thought they would burst in at any moment,” Bawaqneh said.
“They were scared and clung to us. Their legs were shaking so much they couldn’t walk,” she said.
When they entered the house around 10 p.m., they arrived “in incredible numbers and started searching every room with dogs,” Bawaqneh recalled.
“They came with water and food, enough to last several days,” she said, adding that it was clear they were going to use the house as a “military base.”
About three hours later, an Israeli army officer stopped them and ordered them to leave. Bawaqneh refused, saying it was too dangerous for the children because the streets were devastated and without electricity.
“He told us, ‘We’re going to have to lock you in a room.’ And that’s exactly what they did after confiscating our phones,” Bawaqneh recalls.
Sitting in a room adjacent to the main hall of the house, the women all wondered how long they would be locked up.
About 45 minutes later, another soldier unlocked the door and told the family to leave.
“I asked again if they could guarantee our safety walking alone, in the dark, and the officer said yes. So of course, we had no choice,” she said.
“We left and they wouldn’t let us take anything. We had no food, no water, no clothes, no money.”
Upon arrival at Jenin Public Hospital, Bawaqneh quickly realized that their situation was similar to many other families who had also been forced to leave their homes and ended up in hospital.
There was no way to know what was happening, as power outages and lack of internet access made it difficult to follow what was happening in the camp and in the eastern part of the city of Jenin.
A “destroyed” city
Bawaqneh said the “terrified” families she met at the hospital had also fled “with nothing, not even a penny in their pockets.”
“Those who arrived before us were sleeping in the maternity ward upstairs,” Bawaqneh said.
She said it was “rare to see an entire family together” as many youth and children – especially young men who are subject to abuse and arrest by Israeli soldiers – fled the camp to nearby areas when the operation began.
As the sun rose, people began arriving in large numbers and families were “filling the courtyard” of the hospital, Bawaqneh said.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International have warned that with these incursions, forced displacement is inevitable.
Amnesty International has also noted a “horrifying increase” in the use of lethal force by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Jenin Municipality Head Nidal al-Obaidi agrees.
“Raids and incursions have been taking place for several years, but their frequency and intensity increased after October 7, as did the destruction that accompanies each incursion,” al-Obaidi told Tel Aviv Tribune.
He described the latest incursion as “an earthquake” that rocked Jenin and its refugee camp.
“We see army bulldozers sweeping the city’s streets, destroying infrastructure, water pipes and sewage systems. We see shots aimed at telephone and power lines,” al-Obaidi said.
“We see the destruction of public infrastructure, including schools, playgrounds and businesses. And of course, the destruction of many homes, in whole or in part,” he added.
About 70 percent of Jenin has been “wiped out,” al-Obaidi said.
According to him, families from about 120 homes were forced to flee. Many houses were partially or completely destroyed.
Bawaqneh’s home is one of them. Returning to see the family home on Friday, Bawaqneh said IDF soldiers had “turned the house upside down” after vandalizing it beyond recognition.
The main door is broken, the windows of the house are broken, the furniture, including the beds, are also broken. Israeli soldiers drew on the walls and on the pictures of Bawaqneh’s father, who was murdered.
“Every corner of the house has been trashed. Our kitchen appliances have been used and abused. It will take weeks to make this space habitable again,” she said.
Some houses were even harder hit. According to Al-Obaidi, “dozens of houses were razed.”
More than 100 shops and businesses were destroyed, including those in Jenin’s commercial square.
Videos verified by Tel Aviv Tribune’s fact-checking agency Sanad show Israeli army bulldozers destroying local businesses and residential structures in Jenin.
Al-Obaidi said the municipality was working to repair some water pipes and power lines in some areas, including those near the hospital.
But it was “extremely difficult with the strong presence of Israeli forces, who fired on my car personally and on the electric trucks,” al-Obaidi said.
Unable to leave
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its teams were also struggling to meet the needs of those stranded in Jenin and its refugee camp, with Israeli forces hampering their movement. Many lacked food, water, baby formula and other basic necessities.
Israeli soldiers sealed off the commercial square at the heart of the camp and declared it a “closed military zone”, local journalist Eman Silawy told Tel Aviv Tribune.
According to local Tel Aviv Tribune journalists, only a fraction of the camp’s 12,000 residents have been able to flee since the start of the operation. Those who have fled have headed to areas on the outskirts of the city or to areas of the camp far from the sites of the confrontation.
While dozens of people in the eastern part of the camp, including the main neighborhood of ad-Damj, were driven out by Israeli soldiers, “thousands of other families remained in the camp,” Silawy said.
This is because they were unable to leave safely or simply do not have the means to do so, she explained.
“We are losing hope”
Israeli attacks on Jenin are nothing new.
Jenin has repeatedly been the focus of Israeli military incursions since the second intifada that broke out in 2000.
During these attacks, Israeli forces often destroy entire neighborhoods, claiming that they harbor Palestinian fighters.
Even without these incursions, living conditions in the camp are desperate, aid workers say. Unemployment is high and poverty is endemic, according to the United Nations.
Despite the many challenges ahead, al-Obaidi said Jenin residents have always been “steadfast” in the face of Israeli “aggression.”
Like many others, Bawaqneh said she hoped her family would be able to return to their home once it was restored. She said the house had been used as a “base” by Israeli soldiers when they left, adding that she was shocked, but not surprised, by the extent of the “intentional damage” inflicted on their home and property.
“We are very, very tired,” she said. The family, now living in a temporary home on the outskirts of Jenin, will once again have to repair extensive damage and pay from their own savings.
“The scale of the destruction, the loss and the fear of the unknown is what worries me the most,” she said. “We are losing hope of returning to anything resembling normal because the camp is not receiving any form of support.”