Tulkarem, occupied West Bank –Israeli forces killed a young Palestinian man and seriously wounded another during a massive attack on a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank town of Tulkarem, which damaged the infrastructure of the camp.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced 21-year-old Ayed Samih Khaled Abu Harb died at 8:15 am (06:15 GMT) on Tuesday, saying he was shot in the head. A funeral procession was held for him at 11 am.
Israeli forces, armed with armored tractors, attacked the crowded refugee camp in Nur Shams from multiple fronts at dawn, prompting armed resistance from Palestinian fighters.
They bulldozed the road to the camp, which is minutes from the city of Tulkarem, and destroyed many houses and shops, as well as infrastructure, before leaving three hours later.
‘They destroyed everything’
Taha al-Irani, head of the camp’s popular committee, spoke to Al Jazeera from the camp on Tuesday about the level of destruction and the shock at Abu Harb that one person was killed and another injured.
“I want to assure you that the martyr [Ayed]was just standing at his front door when he was killed, and the person in critical condition was a taxi driver on his way to work,” al-Irani, 50, said.
“It’s complete destruction of the camp… The main road that connects the camp to other cities – up to Tulkarem, Nablus, Ramallah – is partially destroyed.”
The Nur Shams refugee camp, established in 1952, is one of two camps in Tulkarem and was built to house Palestinian refugees from the Haifa area after the 1948 Nakba, or ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias.
Mohammad Abu Talal, a 39-year-old supermarket owner, told Al Jazeera: “The army came in with bulldozers and tractors. They destroyed the store, they destroyed everything.”
In a statement, the Tulkarem Directorate of Education announced that schools will be suspended on Tuesday.
232 Palestinians have died this year
With the death of Abu Harb, the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army since the beginning of this year rose to 232.
The Israeli army said it arrested 21 Palestinian “wanted suspects” on Tuesday night alone. The total number of Palestinians held in various forms of Israeli detention is in the thousands.
The Israeli army has been occupying the West Bank, where about three million Palestinians live, for 56 years.
Over the past two years, the Palestinian armed resistance has reorganized and increased in prominence, especially in the north of the occupied West Bank. In response, Israel tries to crush this resistance with almost daily attacks on Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps that almost always result in casualties.
Nur Shams was targeted in another recent large-scale Israeli attack on July 24, in which at least 13 Palestinians were injured, including four with live ammunition and nine with shrapnel. Israeli forces also damaged infrastructure during the attack, forcing the Palestinian Authority to dedicate a portion of its budget for camp reconstruction.
“Thank God that we did not issue tenders for the reconstruction of roads and infrastructure [after the earlier raids] however,” al-Irani said.
On August 5, the Israeli army stormed the camp and shot 18-year-old Mahmoud Abu Sa’an in the head at point-blank range, killing him, the Health Ministry said. Abu Sa’an just graduated from high school.
“If the Israeli thinks that he can achieve security and peace through his oppression and these crimes he has committed, he is delusional. It will not come unless the Palestinians are given their rights, to live in dignity in their state,” al-Irani said.
Ayman Nobani reports from Nur Shams refugee camp.
