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‘For the resistance’: Tulkarem residents face Israeli airstrikes and assassinations [1]
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Date: 2024-07-01 19:03:11+00:00
On Monday, July 1, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the killing of a child and a woman and the injury of 4 Palestinians by the bullets of Israeli forces during a raid on Nur Shams refugee camp and Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
During the raid, which started on Sunday, June 30, Israeli aircraft bombed a house in Nur Shams, assassinating Saeed Ezzat Jaber, 24, one of the leaders of the Nur Shams Brigade.
The Nur Shams Brigade is an armed resistance group affiliated with the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
“They cannot overpower us on the ground, so they resort to bombing and missiles with warplanes,” a member of the Nur Shams Brigade told Mondoweiss. “My message to the occupiers is that if they fight us from the sky, we will come out to them from below the earth.”
On Sunday afternoon, the Israeli aircraft bombed a house in the Al-Manshiyya neighborhood in Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem, resulting in the killing of a young man and the injury of five others, two of whom are in critical condition.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army radio reported that a drone bombed an apartment it had been monitoring for some time, believing that members of the Nur Shams Brigade had been present. Local sources, however, said that the bombing was carried out by a missile from an Israeli warplane and that it targeted a three-story house.
Photos captured by Mondoweiss during the funeral of the martyred Jaber showed injuries to members of the Nur Shams Brigade who were present inside the house that was bombed and survived the assassination attempt.
Injured resistance fighters from the Nur Shams Brigade, Tulkarem. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha/Mondoweiss)
One member of the Nur Shams Brigade told Mondoweiss that the airstrike was a cowardly assassination operation.
“After assassinating commander Saeed Ezzat, the occupation announced that its operation had failed because it did not succeed in killing the Brigade’s leader, Abu Shuja,” he said. “The occupation thinks that by killing us, it defeats us. But this is a victory for us. The occupation cannot overpower us on the ground, so it resorts to bombing and killing from the air.”
The Israeli army released a video of the moment the house was bombed in the al-Manshiyya neighborhood, one of the most densely packed neighborhoods in Nur Shams. The bombing caused damage to over 10 houses surrounding the targeted house.
جيش الاحتلال ينشر توثق لحظة قصف واغتيال القائد سعيد جابر في مخيم نور شمس ظهر اليوم. pic.twitter.com/m36lGslyDB — أخبار الأردن (@AkhbarOrdon) June 30, 2024
While touring the neighborhood, Mondoweiss observed that dozens of homes were damaged. Some of the houses had their contents completely destroyed, and windows were shattered over residents’ heads.
Ali Abbas, who lives in al-Manshiyya, said that he woke up at exactly 2 p.m. to the sound of the bombing.
“We couldn’t comprehend what had happened,” he told Mondoweiss. “Dust filled the place, and the windows shattered over our heads. It was a powerful strike. We didn’t understand what had happened in the neighborhood. When we went out into the street, we found a three-story building completely bombed.”
Taghreed Amarne, another resident, told Mondoweiss that her house was only one meter away from the house targeted by the army, stating that she had been sleeping and woke up to find the rubble of her home and its furniture over her head, causing her to panic.
“There is no safety. I was in the bedroom, and my husband — he’s a man in his seventies. I started running like crazy looking for him over the glass,” Amarna said. “I give my home as a sacrifice to the resistance. What matters is that the fighters are safe. Money and houses can be replaced. I am not sad about my home. We are saddened by the loss of our young men. I don’t care about the house. We will remain steadfast in our homes, and we will not leave them until liberation.”
“We are like a miniature Gaza,” she adds. “Just as the Israelis bombed houses on them, today they bombed ours. They bombed us while feeling safe in their homes…but this will not make us retreat or leave our homes. On the contrary, what happened today made me hold onto my home even more because I know I am in the right.”
Resistance strikes back
Early on Monday, Israeli forces also stormed the city of Tulkarem, besieging the entrances to the Nur Shams refugee camp and deploying snipers on residential buildings. Palestinian resistance engaged in armed clashes with the invading forces.
Israeli military vehicles headed towards Nur Shams, imposing a siege on the camp. Meanwhile, Israeli bulldozers destroyed infrastructure within the camp and along the adjacent street. They also began to sabotage and excavate main roads in Tulkarem.
Israeli soldiers raided several homes and high-rise buildings surrounding the camp, deploying snipers on rooftops. Confrontations erupted at the entrance of Tulkarem refugee camp as military vehicles passed nearby, accompanied by the sound of explosions in the area.
Journalists’ cameras captured the towing of an Israeli military armored vehicle, a Panther-model troop, which had been hit by a homemade explosive device in Nur Shams.
قوات الاحتلال تسحب آلية عسكرية استهدفت بعبوة ناسفة في مخيم نور شمس بطولكرم ما ادى لسقوط عدد من الجرحى pic.twitter.com/fnbb3Wt2ig — Hisham Abu Shaqrah | هشام أبو شقرة (@HShaqrah) July 1, 2024
The same model of military vehicle was destroyed in Jenin last week when the Jenin Brigade conducted a “double ambush” that killed an Israeli officer and injured 16 other soldiers.
The al-Quds Brigades in the West Bank announced through its Telegram channel that its fighters in the Tulkarem Brigade continued to confront the Israeli forces that stormed the Nur Shams camp from the early hours of the morning.
In its statement, the Brigade announced that its fighters had damaged Israeli military vehicles during the raid, stating, “The world saw today on its screens how we turned their military pride and armored carriers into a laughing stock, dragged away in defeat.”
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[1] Url:
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/07/for-the-resistance-tulkarem-residents-face-israeli-airstrikes-and-assassinations/?ml_recipient=125746961265460620&ml_link=125746959016265540&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2024-07-02&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines+RSS+Automation
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