Palestinians in Tulkarm in the northern occupied West Bank on Thursday described the operation carried out by the Israeli occupation army in the city and its two camps as a simulation of the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian activist resisting the occupation, Suleiman Al-Zuhairi, said that what is happening in the Nour Shams and Tulkarm camps in the northern West Bank mimics the Israeli war in Gaza. He added that the same destructive mentality that is destroying there takes the decision to destroy the West Bank camps.
Al-Zuhairi added that while he was inspecting the destruction in Nour Shams camp after the Israeli army withdrew, Israeli bulldozers destroyed 15 housing units within hours in the camp, in addition to demolishing 3 commercial stores.
Al-Zuhairi stated that a number of families became homeless and lost everything after the occupation demolished their homes without warning. The army also destroyed the belongings of dozens of homes and stole money and gold jewelry.
He pointed out that these practices confirm that the Israeli occupation targets everything Palestinian, wherever they are and whatever their faction. Al-Zuhairi confirmed that the Tulkarm camp, which is close to Nour Shams, is also witnessing widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure.
In turn, the Palestinian Ibrahim Mahmoud, while standing on the rubble of his two-story house in the Al-Mansheya neighborhood in Nour Shams, regretted the state he had found himself in. He said, “What is happening is like the Gaza Strip. They are destroying everything, thank God.”
Part of the destruction caused by the occupation forces in Al-Manshiya neighborhood in Nour Shams camp pic.twitter.com/rdOmcP3IQu
– Shehab News Agency (@ShehabAgency) January 18, 2024
Continuous operations
The Israeli occupation army withdrew from Nour Shams camp after a military operation that lasted several hours, but it continues its operations in the nearby Tulkarm camp and a number of neighborhoods in the city, and the first pictures of the withdrawal showed great destruction to homes and the camp’s infrastructure.
The Israeli army set up a military checkpoint in front of the Thabet Thabet government hospital in Tulkarm, and obstructed ambulance vehicles. One of the paramedics said that the situation in Tulkarm is difficult, noting that Israeli forces are erecting checkpoints everywhere to hinder movement.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Thursday that the number of Palestinian martyrs killed by occupation army fire in the city of Tulkarm had risen to 6 during a continuous storming operation for more than 30 hours.
Since the outbreak of its devastating war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has intensified its operations in the occupied West Bank, killing 367 Palestinians and arresting 6,090 from the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.
The occupation army is also waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving 24,448 martyrs, 61,504 injured, and causing the displacement of about 1.9 million people, according to the Palestinian authorities and the United Nations.