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Incursions into Nur Shams refugee camp signal that the West Bank is Israel’s next open-air prison

July 14, 2024 at 11:40 am

A view of the damaged area as the Israeli forces raid Nur Shams refugee camp, in Tulkarem, West Bank on July 09, 2024 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

On 1 July, an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) vehicle exploded in Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank, killing one occupying soldier and seriously wounding a commander in the commando unit. The explosive detonated just after the vehicle turned down a narrow street.

According to Israeli media, resistance forces had planted the bomb under the surface of the road. Just days before, an IDF drone destroyed a three-story building, killing Saeed Al-Jaber, a commander of the resistance, and wounding five others. The bomb was likely in response to the killing of Al-Jaber.

The occupying forces have a long, brutal history of targeting Nur Shams, located about three kilometres from Tulkarm, in the northwest region of the West Bank. Since 7 October 2023, there has been an uptick in assaults on the camp, including the destruction of infrastructure, interruptions in power and internet service, restrictions on food and supplies, and the arrests and killings of unarmed civilians.

In the early morning hours of 19 October 2023, Zionist forces deployed military vehicles, invading the camp and razing streets with armoured bulldozers, crushing parked cars along the way. Snipers occupied rooftops, shooting at anyone daring to step out of their homes. Residents went on lockdown as, for 30 hours, resistance groups fought back the aggressor-occupiers. They finally drove them out, but not before significant damage was done to the infrastructure and main entrance.

Water lines and electricity, sewage pipes, and internet were all destroyed. The camp was abandoned in darkness and devastation with no access to services or communication and without humanitarian aid. 13 Palestinians were killed, seven under the age of 18, and at least 40 people injured by sniper fire and drone missiles launched at homes.

On 18 April, a similar attack killed 14 Palestinians in Nur Shams while occupying forces also raided Tulkarm, tearing up roads in the town centre and killing three men, one of whom they shot and then ran over multiple times with a military vehicle.

READ: Palestinians killed and wounded by Israeli occupation forces in Tulkarem

The occupier invasions have become almost routine, as nearly 150 Palestinians have been killed in Tulkarm and Nur Shams since October 7, 2023, mostly civilians. Lockdowns have been enforced, and snipers placed on rooftops in Tulkarm and Nur Shams. From their homes in Tulkarm, residents can hear bombs explode in the nearby camp, with the echoes of shots fired between occupying and resistance fighters.

Armed resistance

Militant resistance has continued to grow in Nur Shams and throughout the West Bank as fighters prepare for more Israeli incursions. The Nur Shams Brigades, affiliated with the al-Quds Brigade, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has consolidated some of the other armed factions in the camp. But fighters affiliated with the Fatah Party and Hamas, along with youths trained to use rifles but with little or no affiliation to an armed group, also contribute to the resistance in Nur Shams.

The New Arab  reported that according to leading Palestinian military expert Youssef Al-Sharqawi, “Any attempt to eradicate Palestinian resistance in Nur Shams camp and the West Bank would mean committing genocide similar to what is happening in the Gaza Strip.”

Whether Israel is willing to acknowledge that armed resistance cannot be eliminated on the West Bank remains to be seen. According to Mondoweiss, a member of the Nur Shams Brigade stated, “My message to the occupiers is that if they fight us from the sky, we will come out to them from below the earth.”

Due to Israel’s stoppage of funding to the Palestinian Authority, government workers are only receiving partial pay, if at all.  A proposed bill to designate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as a terrorist group passed a preliminary vote in the Knesset by a 42-6 majority. Not only would this amount to the closing of clinics, schools, and access to many other resources for Palestinians in the camps in the West Bank and Gaza, but most UNRWA employees are Palestinian refugees. It would level a huge blow to the economy and wage revenues throughout the territories.

Also, Palestinians who crossed into Israel to work have had their permits revoked. As a result, an already high unemployment rate has skyrocketed. When workers do get paid, banks often siphon money for loan payments.

READ: 9,700 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel

The West Bank is slowly transforming into another open-air prison, as Gaza was before 7 October 2023. High unemployment, blockades of goods and services, and a pervading sense of hopelessness make the prospects for any normal life for the Palestinians remote at best. The Palestinian Authority (PA), who often enabled Israel’s occupation, now disappear when the IDF rolls into Tulkarm. The West Bank is run by Israel’s occupying army and illegal settlers, all well-armed and burning the olive groves and fields of Palestinian farmers.

Isolated West Bank villages have no protection nor aid from the international community, and the strategic arrangement of settlements cuts off towns from one another. Right-wing extremists in Netanyahu’s hardline Likud government have claimed more land for illegal settlements, recently announcing the building of five, one for each of the countries that recently recognized Palestinian statehood, making their plans clear: There is no room for Palestinian autonomy or for Palestinians.

Occupied Palestinian lands

Palestinian territory is broken into three areas: Area A is under the control of the Palestinian Authority only; Area B is under shared authority between the PA and Israel; and Area C, the only contiguous Palestinian land, is under the authority of Israel exclusively. These areas were divided in accordance with the Oslo II Accords.

Under this arrangement, the Palestinian Authority controls only 18% of the West Bank. Still, Area A is prone to occupier incursions, targeting of civilians, and settler violence. The PA police often conduct their own arrests, imprisoning and torturing Palestinians. As a result, the Palestinians lack a safe or buffer zone. They also have no protective agency. While UNRWA has supported camps like Nur Shams, their victim support services are limited to filing incident reports. They have no security apparatus, and often, Palestinians are reluctant to file reports of abuse and even shootings of children for fear of repercussions from occupying forces.

Nur Shams camp, established by UNRWA in 1952, became embroiled in the first intifada, from 1987 to 1993, and the second intifada, from 2000 to 2005. In both instances, the occupier attacked refugees, bombed buildings, arrested or shot civilians, and engaged resistance fighters with soldiers and tanks.

Nur Shams has a population of over 12,000 refugees packed into a .22 square km area. The infrastructure was strained before the latest incursions due to an inadequate sewage system that overflows, a poor electrical grid, and an insufficient availability of clean water. The UNRWA schools were in dire need of renovations before the latest IDF attacks.

A future in question

On 9 July, a convoy of armoured bulldozers followed by IDF vehicles headed back to Nur Shams, plowing up roads and destroying storefronts in Tulkarm along the way. Painted on the blade of one bulldozer was the name of the IDF soldier slain in the roadside explosion, proving that the incursion was less about confronting a threat than exacting revenge.

If the future of the West Bank is like Tulkarm and Nur Shams, and what we’re seeing in Jenin, Hebron, and many other areas, then there’s no plausible future for Palestinians. Despite decades of a promised two-state solution, their quality of life has only deteriorated. The Oslo Accords legitimized Israeli occupation in the West Bank and have become a license for increased land seizure.

The West Bank occupation and violent incursions display all the characteristics of ethnic cleansing outlined by the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. While the death toll is nowhere close to Gaza’s, ethnic cleansing isn’t measured by the number of dead. It is defined by one ethnic or religious group working to displace another through terror, murder, torture, indiscriminate arrests, and confining a population to ghetto conditions.

The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians started in 1948 with the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians from their homes and continues to this day with increased ferocity as Netanyahu and his government are willing to forgo all security and possibility of peace to grab land for illegal settlements. Their solution to end the occupation is through annexation and creating one state with no room for Palestinians. It’s up to the international community to stop this, most notably the United States, Israel’s greatest supporter, before the West Bank becomes another humanitarian catastrophe.

WATCH: Israeli forces bulldoze Nur Shams refugee camp in occupied West Bank

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.