‘Bodies shredded into pieces’: unprecedented Israeli airstrike in West Bank kills 20
Palestinians inspect the aftermath of a deadly Israeli airstrike in Tulkarem refugee camp which killed 20 people
Qassam Muaddi reports in Mondoweiss on 4 October 2024:
Israel killed 20 Palestinians in an airstrike on Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern West Bank late on Thursday, October 3, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported. Several children and an entire family were among the dead, as the strike targeted a three-floor residential building in the center of the camp.
The strike, conducted with an Israeli fighter jet using a heavy missile, was the first strike of its kind in over 20 years. The Israeli army and intelligence said in a joint statement that the strike targeted Zahi Oufi, described as a local “Hamas commander” who was killed in the strike. Residents in Tulkarem told Mondoweiss that the targeted location was a local cafe full of civilians, where Oufi was at the time. The cafe was on the ground floor of a residential building that housed several civilian apartments in the overcrowded refugee camp.
“I was in the camp just half an hour before the strike, playing billiards with some young men from the camp,” a resident of the camp who preferred to remain unnamed told Mondoweiss. “It was about 100 meters away from the place that was struck.”
The camp resident detailed the events leading up to the strike and how it subsequently unfolded. “One of the guys who was playing with me was a teenager named Arkan Bilal. He left to buy something and never came back,” he explained. “I left to go visit my wife’s family in the city [of Tulkarem], and on my way, I walked by the [targeted] cafe and saw several men, including elderly men sitting inside as usual, with children playing in the street just in front of it. Then I saw Anwar Nuseimi, who lives in Jericho and was visiting his parents in Tulkarem for a few days, and he waved hello to me.”
“As I left the camp, I saw a fighter jet flying very high over the city,” he continued. “About ten minutes after leaving the camp, a very loud explosion could be heard all over the city. A friend told me that there was a strike in the camp.”
“I went back to the camp, and the cafe had been completely destroyed, but the building was still standing, although partially destroyed — the bomb had pierced two floors before exploding in the cafe,” he continued to explain. “There were hundreds of people trying to pull bodies and survivors from the rubble and looking for their loved ones.”