JENIN: An intense Israeli military raid had already sent Qusay Farahat fleeing his home in the occupied West Bank, but the offensive has since expanded, threatening a relative’s house where he sought shelter.
The raid, which according to Israel aims to dismantle “terrorist infrastructure”, has targeted Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank including Jenin where 22-year-old Farhat is from.
But since it began on January 21, the deadly Israeli offensive has gradually encroached upon more cities and towns.
“Here, it feels like the camp all over again,” said Farahat, surveying wreckage outside the relative’s house in Jenin city where he had gone with his family for safety.
An army bulldozer has ripped through the street, a common sight during Israeli raids which the military says aims to clear roads of explosives.
“When the bulldozer came, it tore everything apart while we were inside,” said Farhat.
“We shouted for help,” he said, adding the family was left “trapped” as the roaring machine left the front of the house in ruins.
It had thrust a wrecked car and rubble against the house’s raised entrance, and further down the street, now stripped of tarmac, disfigured storefronts and tore down walls.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and carries out regular raids against Palestinian militants, but the current offensive in the north is the longest continuous one in the territory in two decades.
According to the United Nations, the military operation has killed at least 39 Palestinians and displaced 40,000. The Israeli military said it had taken some 90 Palestinians into custody over the past week alone.
Since last month, according to UN figures, nearly 18,000 people have fled the Jenin camp, normally home to 24,000 residents including the Farhat family.
With much of the camp damaged and Israeli forces still present, few Palestinian residents have been able to return.
RAIDED OFFICES
In Jenin’s eastern neighbourhood, on the opposite side of the city from the camp, an elderly man struggled up a hill on an old bicycle ill-suited to deal with the mud left in the bulldozers’ wake, and a woman carrying groceries picked her way through the mounds of debris.
One shopkeeper, fixing a bent metal awning, told AFP he already had to repair it just six months ago, following another Israeli raid.
Adding to the destruction, an air strike on Thursday hit a car in the neighbourhood, starting a small fire that burned for hours.
Parents warned their children to stay away from the smouldering remains fearing unexploded ordnance.
The Israeli army said its forces had “located a rigged vehicle and dismantled it”, sharing a video of the drone strike.
In one high-rise overlooking the camp, residents said Israeli soldiers had raided offices, searching them and possibly using them as a vantage point — as troops have done before in that area.
