Jenin, West Financial institution
CNN
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Mohammed Abu al-Hayja was sleeping alongside his spouse and two younger daughters final month when loud gunfire woke them up. Minutes later, Israeli troopers rammed down his door and burst by his condo.
“They unfold by the home in seconds,” 29-year-old al-Hayja advised CNN. “Two troopers got here as much as me, advised me to rise up, one advised me, ‘Depart your daughter along with her mom,’ after which he took me and cuffed my fingers behind my again.”
Al-Hayja’s traumatic run-in with Israeli safety forces occurred as they carried out what they described as a counterterrorism operation within the heart of the Jenin refugee camp on January 26. The constructing they focused is only a few meters from his house.
“The safety forces operated to apprehend a terror squad belonging to the Islamic Jihad terror group,” the Israeli Protection Forces (IDF), the Israeli Safety Company and the Israel Border Police mentioned in a joint assertion, hours after the raid.
Ten Palestinians have been killed in Jenin, together with an aged girl, in response to Palestinian officers. One other Palestinian was killed in what Israel Police known as a “violent disturbance” close to Jerusalem hours later, making it the deadliest day for Palestinians within the West Financial institution in over a yr, in response to CNN information. As violence spiraled within the area, a minimum of seven individuals have been killed and three injured in a taking pictures close to a synagogue in Jerusalem a day later in response to Israeli police.
In Jenin, Al-Hayja remembers the occasions of January 26 clearly, explaining that after being handcuffed an Israeli soldier took him to the lavatory and made him kneel down, earlier than wrapping a towel round his head.
Restrained, blindfolded and caught in his lavatory, al-Hayja then began listening to gunfire from inside his condo. “I might hear it, and if I concentrated I might hear one of many troopers speaking to my spouse,” he says.
Al-Hayja says he was in a position to persuade the troopers to let him go to his spouse. Nonetheless blindfolded, he crawled to his lounge, as bullets flew above him.
Israeli troopers had eliminated one in all his couches and arrange a firing place by the window to supply cowl for his or her items participating Palestinian gunmen close by. Utilizing flats like al-Hayja’s to supply cowl fireplace is “customary working process,” a spokesman for the Israeli army advised CNN.
Representatives of the United Nations company for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) visited Jenin within the days after the incident and spoke to al-Hayja and his household. “Their kids have been noticeably traumatized,” Adam Bouloukos, director of UNRWA Affairs within the West Financial institution advised CNN. “This sort of invasion violates not solely worldwide regulation however frequent decency.”
As Israeli troopers fired, the Palestinian gunmen fired again, holes from their bullets dotting the household house’s doorways and partitions. Al-Hayja confirmed CNN a bag of spent bullet casings he says the Israeli troopers left behind. “They fired a loopy variety of bullets,” he added.
Whereas they did, al-Hayja and his spouse lay on the ground clutching their younger daughters for greater than three hours. Their oldest daughter is 2-and-a-half, the youngest 18-months-old. “Truthfully, I believed I had perhaps 1% likelihood of creating it out alive,” he mentioned.
Moments later an explosion rocked the condo. He later came upon that Israeli troopers had mounted a second firing place in his bed room.
They sawed off the window bars and fired a rocket on the constructing the gunmen have been in, with scorch marks smudging al-Hayja’s ceiling.
“I mentioned to myself, we’re going to die,” he mentioned.
From atop al-Hayja’s constructing, the sprawling Jenin refugee camp spreads towards the horizon and up the hills. What have been as soon as non permanent tents, is now a extra permanent-looking slum of sandstone homes, cobbled on prime of one another.
Down beneath, lies the constructing focused by Israeli troopers. The construction was so broken after the raid that native officers determined it was safer to bulldoze it down. On the rubble, individuals have positioned banners with the faces of a few of these killed – “martyrs,” they learn – and a lone Palestinian flag.
Whereas this operation was one of many deadliest in years, for residents right here, such Israeli incursions happen all too typically. Posters remembering different individuals killed in confrontations with Israeli safety forces through the years line partitions throughout the neighborhood.
The IDF says these raids are focused, aimed toward terrorists, and that they open fireplace when these they’re trying to find fireplace at them.
However individuals in Jenin see it otherwise. “The Israelis raid the camp they usually fireplace at something that strikes,” paramedic Abdel-Rahman Macharqa advised CNN.
The 31-year-old has seen a number of gun battles in Jenin and says the scenario is turning into more and more riskier, even for many who save lives, like him.
“They [Israeli soldiers] have fired at me 5 instances,” Macharqa mentioned. “We don’t really feel secure, even in uniform.”
“After we say goodbye to our wives and kids to come back to work, we all know we might turn out to be martyrs,” he added.
Macharqa witnessed a part of the raid in Jenin because it unfolded on January 26. The paramedic tried to assist one of many three civilians whom Israeli officers say have been killed there, together with seven gunmen.
“They opened fired on him and he was hit 3 times,” he recalled. Macharqa mentioned he pulled the person away and tried to resuscitate him, however he died.
“We need to dwell,” Macharqa mentioned. He feels pissed off, not simply by Israeli actions, but additionally what he sees because the passive perspective and double requirements of the worldwide group.
“Israelis declare he’s a terrorist, however Ukrainians, after they defend themselves from the Russian invasion is that terrorism?,” he requested.
On the day of the raid, Ziad Miri’ee peaked out of his door after he heard gunfire. He noticed an Israeli soldier firing by his automobile to hit a younger man from his neighborhood.
“Our neighbors over there tried to drag him out (of the road),” he mentioned. “The child died.”
Miri’ee, 63, says he was one of many Jenin camp’s oldest residents, however he additionally believes the scenario has been getting worse.
“In 2002, after they raided the camp and bulldozed the homes it was a lot simpler than the three-and-a-half hours of final week’s raid,” he mentioned. On the time, throughout the second intifada, Israeli forces occupied the camp, destroying round 400 houses.
“2002 was a toddler play in comparison with the incident right here final week. We couldn’t step a meter outdoors the home as a result of the bullets have been coming in,” he mentioned.
Miri’ee believes the scenario is certain to get even worse, as frustration with the occupation grows, the shortage of future on the horizon is driving an increasing number of younger individuals to affix the ranks of militant organizations such because the Islamic Jihad.
“Sure, there’s extra [fighters] from this technology,” he says. “This technology was born into the conflict.”
Upstairs from Miri’ee, al-Hayja continues to be shaken by the traumatic expertise. Inside his house there’s no room for bravado, simply concern over the protection of his daughters.
“I don’t intrude or get entangled in this stuff, I simply go from my work to my home and all of it landed on my head,” he mentioned. “You’re in your metropolis and you aren’t secure, you’re in your own home and you aren’t secure.”
“You aren’t secure from this occupier who occupies your land” he added. “You aren’t secure in any respect.”
