Under siege from Israel: Jenin camp's residents defiant amid devastation

Ramallah, occupied West Bank - Nadreh Abu Sbaa is one of the last remaining residents in the Hawasheen neighbourhood of the Jenin refugee camp.

Along with her husband and neighbour, the 48-year-old woman has been besieged in her home for the past seven days as Israeli missiles, bombs, and live ammunition pierce the ground and air around them.

"We don't sleep at all, not at night nor in the morning - the sound of explosions, the Energa grenades, the sound of the soldiers shouting and their dogs barking. We are petrified," she told TRT World.

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave the camp since Israeli occupation forces invaded one week ago in the largest military assault on the city and its refugee camp since 2002.

Abu Sbaa and her family were displaced during that operation 22 years ago. She said she left her home only to return and find it razed to the ground. But this time, she said, any attack on her home will be over her dead body.

"When my house was destroyed in 2002, we received zero compensation. I will not leave. If the army comes I will tell them 'shoot me, I won't leave.' I have already suffered enough," she said, breaking down into tears.

"I prefer to die in my own home and not to be displaced and humiliated once again," she added.

Residents besieged

Hundreds of Israeli soldiers backed by helicopters, bulldozers, and armoured vehicles invaded Jenin, as well as the cities of Tubas and Tulkarem in the northern occupied West Bank, on August 28.

While they later withdrew from Tubas, Israeli forces remain stationed in Jenin and Tulkarem, besieging the entrances of the cities, villages, refugee camps and hospitals, in an attempt to crush any armed resistance in these areas, while causing widespread destruction.

At least 31 Palestinians have been killed in one week, including seven children and two elderly people. The majority of those killed were in Jenin, where 18 Palestinians lost their lives, as well as four people in Tubas and five others in Tulkarem, according to the Palestinian health ministry. More than 130 others have been wounded.

Alongside the killings, Israeli forces have severely destroyed not only homes and stores, but key infrastructure including roads, the water and sewage networks, as well as electricity lines.

Residents who have remained in the camps are besieged, unable to leave, with no access to medical care, food, telecommunications, water or electricity.

Abu Sbaa's downstairs neighbour is a mother of three, including one toddler. She has been out of both milk and diapers for several days now due to the ongoing siege.

"She is having to use cloth instead of (diapers) for her baby. The situation is very difficult. We have also been out of bread for three days," Abu Sbaa said.

"We can't leave – there are snipers directly in front of our home. We don't go anywhere near the windows. We are fortifying ourselves in the corners of the house and only praying to God that we and our home remain safe," she continued, her voice trembling.

Mounting resistance

Palestinian officials estimate that Jenin alone sustained more than 500 million shekels ($135 million) in damages.

In Tulkarem, Faisal Salameh, the head of the Tulkarem refugee camp popular committee, told TRT World that he also estimates the destruction caused to the city's two refugee camps to be "well over $100 million."

Over the past few years, the cities of Jenin and Tulkarem among others have seen the re-emergence of limited Palestinian armed resistance in response to decades of violent military occupation.

The phenomenon saw young men in their 20s and 30s, particularly those in refugee camps, pick up rifles and manufacture improvised explosive devices to defend themselves against persistent, deadly Israeli raids.

Israel has been attempting to crush the state of resistance since then through both targeted and indiscriminate killings, as well as heavy destruction to infrastructure. In July 2023, the army displaced at least 3,000 Palestinians from their homes in the Jenin refugee camp in a two-day invasion with drone missiles and bulldozers, killing 12 people and causing heavy damage.

But since Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, in which more than 40,000 Palestinians, including 16,000 children, have been killed, military raids on the northern occupied West Bank have become even more relentless.

'They forced everyone out'

Ahmad Moussa, 37, along with his wife and two young daughters, was displaced from his home in the al-Damaj neighbourhood in the eastern part of the Jenin refugee camp on Thursday.

He told TRT World that Israeli soldiers raided the area and threatened residents with lethal force if they refused to leave.

"They forced us all out, on foot, without searching us or anything. We had to leave with our arms raised. You can't even look behind – they start shouting at you if you do. There is no one left in the al-Damaj neighbourhood," he added.

Moussa and his family were forced by soldiers into several other homes inside the camp before they were made to leave entirely, he said. They initially evacuated to the Jenin public hospital outside the camp before moving to a relative's house in Jenin city where they are now staying.

For several days, Moussa had no contact with his 50-year-old father and brothers who lived nearby, and knew nothing of their fate, before they also left the camp.

"They forced my father out of his home and refused to let him take his medicine. He has diabetes and blood pressure," Moussa said.

Despite being safe along with his family, Moussa said he keeps thinking about the fate of his home and his future.

"I don't know if my home is still standing, I don't know anything about it, and I have no idea if we will be able to return. They destroyed and burned down entire homes. They burned cars. They dug the roads about three metres deep. They destroyed the water networks," Moussa said.

Back inside the camp, Abu Sbaa is also in shock over the destruction around her.

"They pushed Jenin back 20 years. Everything is in ruins. They want to destroy all of Palestine - to force the entire Palestinian people out of their homeland."