Surviving until the next raid: Life in Nur Shams refugee camp under Israeli assault
Bulldozing streets has become a systematic part of Israeli raids on Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank
Qassam Muaddi reports in Mondoweiss on 5 August 2024:
The sun set on Tulkarem’s damaged streets last Saturday, August 3, 2024, after yet another violent afternoon. Residents returned home after an Israeli raid, during which Israeli bulldozers destroyed main roads, opened fire indiscriminately, and fired tear gas at journalists. Just hours after residents began assessing the destruction to their community from the Israeli raid, they received news of another tragedy: nine young men had been assassinated by Israeli forces in two separate airstrikes in the city.
Tulkarem, a small city in the northwestern occupied West Bank, just on the Green Line, has become the primary target of Israeli raids in recent years, ever since the resurgence of armed resistance groups in the area in 2022. The formation of the ‘Tulkarem Brigade’, which operates primarily out of the city’s two refugee camps, has prompted an escalation in Israeli military operations, with Israel using everything from foot soldiers to drone strikes to try and quash the armed militias, composed mostly of local young men.
Since October 7, however, the crackdown on Tulkarem, particularly the Nur Shams refugee camp, has intensified. Israeli raids have become an almost daily occurrence. The raids are more destructive and lethal, longer in duration, and have transformed the lives of the more than 8,000 Palestinians living in the camps, all of them families who were expelled from their original towns and villages in 1948. Life for them has become a constant struggle for survival under Israeli assault, which has impacted every aspect of daily life.
Anguish, destruction, and psychological impact
During one of the many raids on Nur Shams in the past 10 months, Israeli soldiers arrested Samih Abu Harb, from his home in the camp. Samih is a father in his late forties who has worked most of his life in construction, like most men in the camp. When he was arrested, Samih spent the night detained in a large community hall in Nur Shams, alongside dozens of Palestinian civilians, not knowing when they were going to be released. Some carried children, some were old and sick, and they were all taken from their homes by Israeli forces. Around 45 people – men and women, young and old – watched as Israeli soldiers called in teenage boys for interrogation in the adjacent toilet rooms.