Israel intensifies deadly assault on Jenin and Tulkarm - War on Gaza

Al-Ahram Weekly

25-03-2025

Israeli occupation forces expanded their military operation in the occupied West Bank cities of Jenin and Tulkarm, demolishing homes and shops, detaining hundreds, displacing thousands, and killing 47 people, Palestinian officials said on Tuesday, according to WAFA.
The Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank, codenamed Operation Iron Wall, began on 21 January in Jenin.
In Jenin, the assault on the city and its refugee camp entered its 64th consecutive day.
Military bulldozers continue to raze homes, demolish commercial properties, and widen roads for Israeli military use.
The municipality of Jenin said the Israeli army issued demolition orders for about 66 buildings, affecting some 300 homes in neighbourhoods including Al-Aloub, Al-Hawashin, and Al-Samran.
The occupation barred residents from retrieving their belongings or returning to the homes they were displaced from.
Israeli troops have also bulldozed 100 percent of the camp's streets and approximately 80 percent of the city's streets, displacing residents from 3,200 homes.
WAFA reported that the number of displaced persons from Jenin camp has reached 21,000 — 90 percent of the camp's population — and they are now seeking shelter in the town and surrounding villages.
The Israeli operation killed 34 Palestinians in Jenin alone, with dozens more injured. They also detained approximately 480 Palestinians in the city and refugee camp, according to Palestinian rights groups.
In the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps, Israeli forces maintained their military campaign for 58 and 45 days, respectively.
Military reinforcements, including armoured vehicles and infantry units, have been deployed, besieging entire neighborhoods.
Israeli forces continue to raid and occupy homes, turning them into military barracks. The army seized at least 10 residential buildings.
At the same time, hundreds of families have been forcibly displaced, particularly from the Rabaya'a neighborhood of Tulkarm camp and the northern district of the city, according to WAFA.
The municipality reported that the occupation destroyed 396 homes and partially damaged 2,573 others in the Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps.
Thousands of shops, vehicles, and other infrastructure have been damaged or demolished.
Israeli forces have also blocked major roads with earth mounds and imposed severe restrictions on movement.
The occupation also killed at least 13 Palestinians in Tulkarm since the start of the military escalation, including a child and two women — one of whom was eight months pregnant.
The Israeli forces forcibly displaced over 4,000 families from Tulkarm.
The Commission of Detainees' and Ex-Detainees' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) reported that between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, Israeli forces detained at least 25 Palestinians across the West Bank, mainly in Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, Qalqilya, and Jerusalem.
These arrests are part of an ongoing crackdown that has seen 480 detentions in Jenin and 230 in Tulkarm since the beginning of the Israeli military operation, according to WAFA.
Palestinian human rights organizations have documented patterns of systematic Israeli abuses, including field executions, targeted assassinations, forced disappearances, and collective punishment.
The occupation forces also used Palestinian detainees as human shields and converted multiple seized homes into military outposts.
Israeli forces conduct near-daily raids across the occupied West Bank, frequently arresting Palestinians under the pretext of security operations.
These operations, conducted without warrants, often trigger violent confrontations with residents.
Under Israeli military law, army commanders have full executive, legislative, and judicial authority over the three million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, leaving them without any legal recourse.
According to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner rights group, there are currently 9,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons, including 350 children and 21 women.
Israel is holding at least 3,405 Palestinians under administrative detention, which allows indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial.
Since Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967, mass arrests have been a routine policy.
Addameer estimates that the occupation has detained over 800,000 Palestinians in the last 50 years — a figure now believed to be closer to 1 million. This means that 40 percent of Palestinian men and boys in the occupied territories were imprisoned at some point.
Nearly every Palestinian family has experienced the detention of a loved one.
The expansion of the military operation in Jenin, Tulkarm, and across the West Bank shows no signs of abating, as Israeli forces continue large-scale detentions, home demolitions, and forced displacement amid increasing humanitarian concerns.
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