05-04-2025
‘I Want to Be Martyred,' a Palestinian Boy Declares
'Little Gaza' is the nickname locals use for a battle-scarred area here where buildings are destroyed and roads torn up, where families have been driven away, where the alleys throb with loss, grief and fear of snipers. But this isn't Gaza at all, it's a refugee camp in Tulkarm in the West Bank.
Without attracting much notice or protest, Israel increasingly is using the tools of war familiar in Gaza — tanks, airstrikes and massive destruction and displacement — here in the West Bank. Human rights groups like B'Tselem call this the 'Gazafication' of the West Bank.
A centerpiece of this Gazafication is a wave of Israeli military assaults that started in January in West Bank refugee camps, forcing some 40,000 people from their homes. Historians say that is the highest number of civilians displaced in the territory since Israel seized it in 1967.
In the short run, the Israeli military actions seem to have succeeded in suppressing Palestinian militants in the camps, but at immense cost in lives and suffering. One of those reportedly shot dead by Israeli forces was Sondos Shalabi, a 23-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant with her first child.
In the longer run, the destruction may just sow the seeds of violence. On the edge of a no-go area, where groups of Palestinians looked at their homes but dared not enter for fear of Israeli snipers, I spoke to a 12-year-old boy, Mohammed Abdul Jalil. He said his home had been demolished and his school classes canceled for the last two months because of the military occupation of the camp.
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