According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, at least 78 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military strikes in Jenin since October 7, making this the deadliest period in the city in recent years. At least 286 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, most in Israeli raids but others in clashes with extremist Israeli settlers.
According to residents, camp committee members, Israeli military statements and Palestinian media reports, the Israeli army has carried out dozens of raids in Jenin over the past two months, most of which targeted the refugee camp. The camp is a built-up, impoverished neighborhood that houses Palestinian refugees forcibly displaced during the wars surrounding Israel’s founding in 1948, as well as their descendants. The raids usually take place at night and involve bulldozers, which have destroyed much of the area’s infrastructure.
“It is a collective punishment,” said Mohammad Sabaghi, head of the committee running the camp. “There is nothing that hasn’t been damaged or destroyed. Water, electricity, telephone lines, sewerage – everything.”
Palestinian Authority Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila said in a statement on Thursday that the situation in Jenin’s hospitals was “very difficult, in light of the escalating aggression” over the past three days. Hospitals were “subjected to a fierce attack,” the statement said, adding that Israeli forces obstructed the arrival of injured people, searched and detained medical staff and attacked ambulances.
The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment on these allegations.
The Medical Charity This is reported by Doctors Without Borders that a father in Jenin had carried his 13-year-old son on foot to a hospital on Wednesday “because Israeli armored cars were blocking the ambulances,” adding that the boy was pronounced dead on arrival.
Wisam Baker, the director of Jenin Hospital, the closest medical center to the refugee camp, said in an interview that Israeli forces had set up checkpoints outside the hospital during some raids, hampering efforts to provide medical care to people who were injured were hampered during the raids.
“It’s difficult for our medical teams to get out and in, and it’s difficult for patients to get into the hospital because it’s dangerous,” he said.
Christina Goudbaum reporting contributed.
