Israel killed three Palestinians in a drone strike on Thursday in Tulkarem, a metropolis and refugee camp within the occupied West Financial institution.
That was throughout an Israeli raid – a near-daily incidence within the West Financial institution – on the Tulkarem refugee camp, throughout which Israeli troops clashed with fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the army wing of Hamas, in response to fighters within the metropolis.
Right here’s all you’ll want to find out about Israeli raids on Tulkarem:
What occurred through the raid?
Information stories say Israeli troopers had been deployed on rooftops and despatched bulldozers into the camp to destroy massive residential areas.
Israel additionally reportedly set fireplace to folks’s properties and prevented native aid employees from placing the fires out.
Consultants say Israel’s techniques throughout its raids seem like a part of a broader doctrine to collectively punish the inhabitants, ostensibly as a result of pockets of armed resistance are combating again in opposition to Israel’s ever-entrenching occupation.
Why is Israel attacking folks in a refugee camp?
Israel claims that it’s conducting “counter-terrorism” operations.
Are there ‘terrorists’ within the camps?
Activists and consultants have previously told Al Jazeera that Israel is enjoying up the specter of “terrorism” to justify the mass displacement of Palestinians and the growth of unlawful settlements.
Refugee camps throughout the West Financial institution are likely to harbour Palestinian fighters loosely affiliated with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) or Fatah.
The fighters say they’re defending their camps and cities from Israeli raids that intention to uproot civilians from their properties and lands.
However Israel says the raids are to arrest people solely?
Shadi Abdullah, an activist documenting abuses by Israel in Tulkarem, says Israeli troops use bulldozers to destroy properties and infrastructure they usually additionally deliberately lower off fundamental provisions to make life troublesome for the inhabitants.
As well as, he stated, Israeli safety forces cooperate with and assist Israelis from unlawful settlements in attacking civilians.
With Tulkarem mendacity between a number of settlements, he stated, “Individuals are continually frightened of assaults from settlers and from the occupation forces.”
“Ultimately… whether or not there are resistance fighters or not, they [Israel] wish to take our land,” Abdullah stated.
Why Tulkarem?
Tulkarem has fertile agricultural land because of its abundance of pure water, activists and rights teams say.
However the unlawful Israeli settlements arrange in recent times have pressured Palestinian farmers and inhabitants to rely on pricey tanker water and rainwater collection systems as a result of settlers have stolen land with water sources.
Abdullah stated the inhabitants density in Tulkarem metropolis and the refugee camp is kind of excessive as a result of pressured displacement of Palestinians from surrounding areas.
The destruction of residential areas in raids makes the inhabitants density even greater as folks transfer from devastated areas into ones they hope can be secure.
How does Israel perform these raids?
Israel has previously dispatched forces disguised as Palestinians to do reconnaissance on a camp earlier than approving a raid.
Israeli troops will then enter the camps with bulldozers to destroy colleges, hospitals and houses. These closely armoured machines are sometimes accompanied by drones and helicopters for air cowl.
Drones, specifically, play a considerable position in Israeli raids, as they did within the Thursday strike that killed three Palestinians.
Earlier this month, Israeli forces used drones to kill 11 Palestinians in Jenin, one other West Financial institution metropolis the place armed resistance has emerged over the past three years.
Israel additionally used drones to focus on the Nur Shams camp on July 3, killing 4 Palestinians.
Using such weapons, says Abdullah, is a part of a broader try and scare a youthful technology of Palestinians from partaking in armed resistance.
He added that Israel may be making an attempt to push the inhabitants of the camps responsible resistance fighters for the destruction.
However, Abdullah says, that tactic doesn’t work.
“There is no such thing as a distinction between the civilians and armed fighters,” he stated. “All of us take part in resistance, however we take part in several methods. Civilians don’t need fighters to cease combating. Quite the opposite, they simply need the Israeli occupation to finish.”