Epic Battle

EXCERPT

Gaza war

During the Gaza war, Israeli forces carried out multiple operations in Jenin. On October 22, 2023, the IDF conducted an airstrike targeting an underground compound beneath the Al-Ansar Mosque in the city. It was reported to be the first airstrike in the West Bank since the Second Intifada. The IDF stated that the strike aimed at operatives from Hamas and PIJ who were planning a terror attack.

Jenin was severely damaged during the Israel–Hamas war. By June 2024 repeated bombing attacks and incursions with bulldozers by Israeli forces razed every street and reduced every public square to rubble. In one incident on 21 May, according to journalist Gideon Levy, an Israeli sniper shot dead bystanders, including surgeon Oussaid Jabareen, who was shot while on his way to work at the Jenin Government Hospital.

Aftermath of Israel raid on Jenin, August 2024

In late August 2024 Israel launched a large-scale, multi-day raid on Jenin as part of Operation Summer Camps, with one resident saying that "The water is cut off. The electricity is cut off, the sewage system is no longer working. All the infrastructure is destroyed, we no longer have any services that work." The governor of Jenin said that "The Israelis are besieging the hospitals and cutting off the city from the refugee camp, which has become a military zone with no access...neither the civil defence, nor the ambulances, nor the journalists can go and see what is happening there." The IDF, on the other hand, says that this is operation is "not extremely different from regular activity". At least 20 Palestinians were killed by the IDF in this attack, including a Palestinian man in his 80s. Additionally, the Israeli forces fired at ambulances carrying "a dead and a wounded person", leading to the injury of 2 EMTs and a volunteer doctor.

Also in August, Israeli bulldozers destroyed miles of the city, including homes, businesses and infrastructure; Israeli soldiers blocked emergency responders from assisting residents. News reports include videos of this attack, as well as assertions by the Israel Defense Forces that it is rooting out terrorism; and that it "undertakes all feasible precautions to avoid damaging essential infrastructure”, while acknowledging that these “operations in the area have caused unavoidable harm to certain civilian structures".

In December 2024, the Palestinian Authority launched an anti-militant operation in Jenin, the largest in three decades, called "Protect the Homeland". The operation aims to regain control of the Jenin refugee camp, targeting militants and those fueling instability.

On January 21, 2025, the IDF launched its own operation in Jenin, dubbed Iron Wall, aimed at clearing Jenin of militants and putting a stop to light arms being smuggled into the city.

Operations in Jenin are ongoing. Around 100 homes have been demolished, residents are being prevented from returning to the area by military checkpoints, and Israeli tanks have been deployed.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenin