Latest news with #Habayeb
Middle East Eye
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Israeli forces release wild boars in Tulkarm as they expand offensive to Nablus
Israeli forces released wild boars into a Palestinian town on Tuesday as they extended a months-long offensive against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank into Nablus. A military truck unloaded at least 18 wild boars near Iktaba town northeast of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, resident Hoda Habayeb told Middle East Eye. She said the animals were released in a residential employee housing complex overlooking the Nour Shams refugee camp, which has been the target of intense Israeli raids for nearly two months. The release of the boars sparked fear among residents, particularly as the area is densely populated and frequented by children. 'This is the first time we've seen wild boars inside Tulkarm, and it's terrifying because the area is residential,' Habayeb said. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'Then we saw them heading towards the rest of Iktaba.' In recent days, some forcibly displaced residents of the Nour Shams camp have attempted to return to their homes, despite being blocked by the Israeli army. Habayeb believes the release of the boars was intended to intimidate residents and discourage them from re-entering the camp, which has been widely destroyed by Israeli forces. The use of wild boars by Israeli settlers has been reported previously as a tactic to harass Palestinian communities in the West Bank, though it hasn't previously been reported that the army used the same method. The animals are known to destroy crops, damage property, and pose a threat to public safety - further exacerbating the hardship faced by Palestinian residents under military pressure. Nablus camp under attack Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced on Wednesday that it is expanding its offensive in the West Bank by advancing on the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. The large-scale assault began in January, initially targeting Jenin, before extending to Tulkarm and now Nablus. Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians, demolished scores of homes, and forcibly displaced around 40,000 people during the ongoing offensive. Elderly Palestinian dies after Israeli soldiers assault him during home demolition Read More » After roughly 24 hours of raiding the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, the Israeli army withdrew to the outskirts of the camp, leaving behind destroyed homes as well as numerous wounded and detained individuals. Ahmed Dhuqan, head of the Balata Camp Popular Committee for Services, told MEE that large Israeli military forces stormed the camp from the early hours of Wednesday until Thursday morning, targeting several residential areas. He said soldiers carried out widespread vandalism across more than 150 homes, removing floor tiles, breaking electrical appliances and dismantling doors and water pipes. 'The soldiers arrested a woman and seven young men, while more than 50 residents suffered from tear gas inhalation and from sound bombs that were fired intensively in the camp's alley,' Dhuaqn said. 'Another 14 people were wounded by live ammunition, and several young men were severely beaten by the soldiers.' A Palestinian runs away from an Israeli military vehicle during a raid on the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on 9 April 2025 (Nasser Ishtayeh/Sopa Images via Reuters) Elsewhere, Israeli bulldozers demolished three homes in the village of al-Rihiya, south of Hebron, citing the lack of building permits as justification. Israeli forces routinely demolish Palestinian structures in the West Bank, citing a 'lack of proper permits' - despite rejecting the vast majority of permit applications submitted by Palestinians. Also on Thursday, Israeli forces arrested 16 Palestinians, including journalist Samer Khweira from Nablus, a presenter for the local Hayat radio station. Khweira was arrested after troops raided his home and handcuffed and blindfolded him in front of his wife and children. Settlers attack MEE contributor Amid ongoing military assaults, groups of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian residents in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, wounding several people. Fuad al-Amour, an anti-settlement activist in the area, told MEE that more than 20 settlers from the Karmiel settlement stormed Khirbet al-Dirat, assaulted shepherds and attempted to steal livestock. One of the injured was taken to hospital with wounds and bruises, while others were treated at the scene. 'Almost every day, we are witnessing settler attacks in Masafer Yatta at an alarming rate,' Amour said. 'I couldn't believe I escaped without injury' - Mohammed Turkman, Palestinian photojournalist 'I believe this is part of an effort to revive the so-called 'Deal of the Century' - to displace Palestinians from these areas and push forward the annexation plan,' he added. Elsewhere, photojournalist Mohammed Turkman, who has contributed to MEE, reported being attacked by settlers at dawn while driving his car west of Ramallah. He said he encountered a group of masked settlers carrying large stones, ready to hurl them at his vehicle. 'I sped up to get away. I managed to overtake them, but they threw stones that damaged the front of the car,' he told MEE. 'I couldn't believe I escaped without injury,' he added. This is not the first time Turkman has been attacked. In the summer of 2023, settlers assaulted him east of Ramallah, smashing the windows of his vehicle.
Ammon
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Ammon
For 3rd day in row, Israeli forces continue wide-scale military offensive on Tulkarm
Ammon News - For the third day in a raw, the Israeli occupation forces continued their aggression on the city and camp of Tulkarm, causing widespread destruction to the infrastructure and citizens' property. A short while ago, a young man was shot in the head by the occupation snipers in the Hanoun Square neighborhood in Tulkarm camp, where citizens are calling for the need to bring an ambulance to take him to the hospital, as he is lying on the ground bleeding, while the occupation forces are preventing ambulances from entering the camp. The occupation forces have pushed more of their vehicles towards the city and its camp, while their bulldozers continue to destroy the infrastructure in its neighborhoods, which has affected the water, electricity, sewage, internet networks, and public and private property. The local residents inside the camp neighborhoods have been living for the third day without water, electricity, or communications, so they have become cut off from the outside world, and they are calling for their rescue and the provision of basic necessities, especially for the sick, children, and the elderly. The occupation forces forced the residents of the Shuhada neighborhood this morning to leave their homes and leave the camp towards the city, joining a convoy of citizens who were forced to leave the camp since the first day. The head of the Popular Committee for Services in Tulkarm Camp, Faisal Salama, told WAFA in a statement yesterday that the camp is witnessing a large displacement of its citizens, and that more than 1,000 refugees were forcibly expelled from the camp. All the neighborhoods of the camp are witnessing a large deployment of occupation vehicles and soldiers, who are firing live ammunition intensively, storming homes and wreaking havoc inside them, and subjecting citizens to interrogation and investigation, and they forced a large number of them to leave at gunpoint. In Tulkarm city, the occupation forces continue their siege of the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital and the Israa Specialized Hospital, obstructing the work of ambulances and their medical crews. The occupation forces are deployed in the city's various neighborhoods and streets, specifically the western, southern and eastern neighborhoods, and they obstruct the movement of vehicles, stop them, search them and force their passengers to return to their homes at gunpoint. In a later development, the occupation forces raided a number of citizens' homes in the western neighborhood of the city, which has turned some of the homes into military barracks after expelling their residents, and checked their identities and subjected them to interrogation, without any arrests being reported. Occupation soldiers were seen trying to open old and abandoned homes in the western neighborhood, which belong to the Habayeb family, using heavy tools. In addition, Tulkarm Municipality crews are working to repair the main water lines that supply parts of the city, located in the vicinity of Jamal Abdel Nasser Square, which were destroyed by the occupation bulldozers two days ago. On Tuesday night, the young man Ayman Al-Naji was killed in the Artah suburb, south of Tulkarm, bringing the number of Palestinians who were killed in Tulkarm over the past two days to three, after the occupation bombed a vehicle in front of the entrance to Nour Shams camp and killed two young men who were inside it. Earlier today, the occupation bulldozers also demolished the family's house of the slain Palestinian Tamer Fuqaha in the Shuweika suburb, north of the city, who was killed on May, 2024. WAFA
