As part of West Bank offensive, Israel conducts largest demolition in years
Smokes rises above Jenin refugee camp as Israeli colonial forces continue to raid Jenin and the camp for a fourth day as part of a major military operation to crack down on armed resistance, 24 January 2025
Qassam Muaddi reports in Mondoweiss on 3 February 2025:
Israeli forces conducted an unprecedented escalation in the West Bank over the weekend by detonating 20 apartment buildings in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. According to some reports, the move constituted the largest single demolition operation conducted in the West Bank since 1967.
According to local journalists, the Israeli army warned Israelis in the nearby settlements that they would hear large explosions as troops wired an entire residential block in Jenin’s Damaj neighborhood with explosives. Local residents and media sources compared the effect of the destruction to the “fire belt” strategy that Israel has employed in Gaza — involving the concentrated and repetitive bombing of small areas that destroy entire residential blocks.
The mass demolition is the latest in Israel’s ongoing offensive in northern Gaza. Israel has so far killed 25 Palestinians as part of the offensive on Jenin launched two weeks ago, dubbed “Operation Iron Wall,” according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The Israeli army claims that it has killed 50 Palestinian “terrorists” and arrested more than 100. However, numbers from Palestinian sources indicate the majority of those who have been killed are civilians. The armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, has only recognized three of its members as having been killed during the operation — two in Tulkarem and one in Jenin.
Among the victims of the wide-ranging offensive is a two-year-old girl, Leila al-Khatib, who was killed by Israeli fire during a raid near Jenin. The latest victim was an elderly man, 73-year-old Waleed Lahlouh, who was killed on Sunday by an Israeli sniper while going back to check on his house in the camp.