“They killed Musa in front of me.” Sharaf Janfar, 29, points his finger at the exact spot where a 16-year-old boy's heart was broken on Thursday in the premises of the Jalil Suleiman Hospital in Jenin (West Bank). became. Janfar reopened his small stand on wheels from which he sells coffee at the center's doors on Friday, after two and a half days of an Israeli military attack that left 12 people, including the teenager, and hundreds of detainees dead. It was the longest of the 15 operations carried out by troops during the war.
The Israeli army said it was an anti-terror operation that ultimately saw 60 people arrested, fifty weapons and explosives confiscated and tunnels destroyed. As a reminder, the soldiers also left numerous humiliating graffiti and even recorded videos in mosques uttering offensive chants in Hebrew against Islam, which, according to the Israeli army, led to the arrest of the perpetrators. The Palestinian Authority (PNA) described the events in Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian resistance, as a “dangerous escalation”.
Jenin is Palestine's most restive city outside the Gaza Strip, with 62 dead, amid the current conflict that began on October 7 with the Hamas attack in Israel in which around 1,200 people were murdered by the militia. Islamic. This latest raid left 12 residents dead in the northern West Bank town. The operation was completed on Thursday afternoon. Among those killed was teenager Musa Jatib, who was shot unarmed, according to the hospital and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) sources. The West Bank, where around 290 people died in this conflict, together with the border with Lebanon represent the two other battle fronts that Israel keeps open in addition to the main theater, the Gaza Strip.
Murad, 13, watches an Israeli drone over a house blown up by the army in Jenin refugee camp (West Bank) during the two-and-a-half day raid. Luis De Vega Hernandez
Malak Jatib, 34, receives condolences at his home in Jenin refugee camp (West Bank) on the death of his 16-year-old son Musa after he was shot at Martyr Khalil Suleiman Hospital. Luis de Vega
Ahmed, three years old, in the Jenin refugee camp (West Bank) after the two and a half day invasion by the Israeli army. Luis De Vega Hernandez
Nasser Sabagh, 50, and his son Musab, 19, were arrested by the Israeli army on Wednesday and released on Thursday after being interrogated for two and a half days along with hundreds of residents of the Jenin (West Bank) refugee camp during the troops' entry . Motasim, another son of Naser, died in March this year and is commemorated on the door of the house as a member of Hamas. Luis de Vega
Graffiti left by Israeli soldiers after the army's two-and-a-half-day invasion of the Jenin refugee camp (West Bank). Luis De Vega Hernandez
Palestinian flag in Jenin refugee camp (West Bank). Luis De Vega Hernandez
Ahmed, three years old, in the Yenín refugee camp.Luis De Vega Hernández
Poster of a “martyr” (who died for the Palestinian cause) in a house in Jenin refugee camp (West Bank). Luis De Vega Hernandez
Halima Tajan, 80, regrets the damage caused by the Israeli military to her home in Jenin refugee camp (West Bank). Luis De Vega Hernandez
During the two-and-a-half day raid, a house in Jenin refugee camp (West Bank) was blown up by the Israeli army. Luis De Vega Hernandez
The hospital is located at the entrance to Jenin refugee camp, the main target of Israeli troops in the West Bank. It is a colorful and irregular network of alleys and almost improvised houses, built over the decades on less than half a square kilometer and home to at least 12,000 people. In one of the first houses, Malak Jatib, 34, cries inconsolably. She is Musa's mother, who receives condolences from other women in the countryside. One of them also lost a child in these weeks.
“I gave everything to make him a man, and as soon as he grows up they kill him,” complains Malak, a separated mother of four other children. Beneath the hugs of visitors, the face of the woman who makes a living cleaning houses appears, illuminated by the tears streaming down her cheeks. “You broke his heart, just like mine,” he whispers as he shows videos of his son’s body on his cell phone during the funeral that same Thursday.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without restrictions.
Subscribe to
Further up, in the upper part of the Jenin Field, the uniformed men not only took up positions but also carried out an important part of the operation. “There are at least a dozen shujada on this street,” says a neighbor, referring to the martyrs for the Palestinian cause and recounting the summary of the street that appears on the map with the name Maheub. In addition to the rubble, half-shattered cars and a few bullet casings, numerous posters, screens and lights remind us of all the dead.
Graffiti left by Israeli soldiers with the date of the Hamas attack, October 7, in Jenin refugee camp (West Bank) after the last attack.Luis de Vega
The neighborhood children knew her and told stories while pointing fingers at her. Ahmed, only three years old, runs around with his toy Kalashnikov rifle. A proud young man with a rifle appears in the light in front of one of the houses. He is Motasim Sabagh, a Hamas member who died on March 7th. His father Naser, 50, and his brother Musab, 19, were two of those arrested by the Israeli army in recent days before being released on Thursday.
They spent a day and a night in Israeli facilities and said they slept in a military SUV packed with handcuffed and blindfolded detainees. “You are a terrorist,” Naser said the soldiers accused him after inspecting his cell phone and seeing the photo of his son Motasim. He assures that the deceased earned a living as a painter in Israel and earned “a lot,” about 9,000 shekels a month (about 2,250 euros). Musab's interrogation lasted longer, about two hours. According to the young man, they tried to corner him with questions so that he would explain that he belonged to Hamas and asked him for information about other residents of the refugee camp.
One of the blown-up houses appears next to the Sabagh family home. They blew it up on Thursday morning and it's still smoking more than a day later. It belonged to Maher Marai, 55, who speaks about the rubble and in front of the painting in which another Shajid (singular of Shujada) appears, his son Mohamed, 25, who died a year and a half ago. Marai, whose other son is imprisoned, believes the house was demolished because another of his sons was sheltering a man wanted by Israel there. However, neighbors point out that they may have found a tunnel in the two-story building.
“We will resist”
Next to Marai, little Murad, 13 years old, keeps looking intently at the sky, where a drone that everyone thinks is an army is hovering persistently and loudly. “We will resist,” says Maher Marai resolutely, trying to overcome the desolate panorama. EL PAÍS also discovered, next to Maheub Street, the remains of a cabin in which the army claimed to have found explosives, according to the video recorded at the time of the explosion.
No matter where you look, the extensive destruction left behind as a reminder of the military invasion is obvious. Roads were dug up, water pipes were torn out and everything was flooded, cars and houses were bulldozed or directly blown up with explosives. Also striking are the dozens of graffiti on the walls with the Star of David and the menorah, the seven-branched Jewish candlestick. In some cases they are accompanied by messages such as “7. October, we will never forget,” which are engraved on a mosque. Posters and banners with the faces of dead residents, many members of the armed resistance, hang everywhere in the camp. After the military withdrew, penises were even painted on them.
From outside one of the houses you can hear the voices of 80-year-old Halima Taján, who sought refuge with her daughter during the days of the attack so that she would not be alone. “Look, shit, shit!” he shouts, pointing to the floor of his living room, where he claims one of the soldiers who lived in his house was relieving himself, which appears to be a complete mess. He has covered the smelly remains with a cloth but insists on showing them. Tajan lives almost wall to wall in the house of the young Musa Khatib, who was murdered in the hospital and is already considered a Shajid.
According to the collected witness statements, the boy ran to the door of the emergency room, was fatally wounded by a gunshot and collapsed there. “It was one o’clock in the afternoon,” confirms Jiris Jader, 49, one of the hospital’s nursing supervisors, looking at the time on his cell phone. They immediately took him to the operating room but couldn't do anything for him, he says. The minor's death was also reported by MSF, which had part of its team in the facilities and also tried in vain to save his life.
One of the streets of the Jenin refugee camp (West Bank) after the two and a half day army invasion. Luis de Vega
“Musa had just helped get stretchers out of the ambulance,” recalls Jiris Jader, recounting how the soldiers blocked access to the hospital a few meters from where the young man was shot. He even added that they forced ambulance drivers to take off their clothes and kneel in the middle of the road, as seen in pictures. These types of abuses are common and have been repeatedly denounced by MSF in Jenin and other locations in the West Bank.
Rehat Mustada Yusef, 68, remains hospitalized in one of the rooms at Suleimán Hospital. The ambulance in which she was driving home with her sister and daughter on Wednesday after being treated for chest pains was shot, she says. There was a splinter under the eyelid of his right eye. Cats roam the corridors and halls of the Khalid Suleiman Hospital, named after a local Red Crescent leader murdered by Israel, while those in attendance smoke. There is peace outside. Until the next Israeli invasion.
Follow all international information on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_