A bulldozer tear large pieces from buildings in an emptied Palestinian neighborhood.
It is not cleaning debris, it is a demolition project – methodical and devastating.
It is part of the operation -iron wall, a massive Israeli Military assault in the northern West bank.
Nominal is Iron Wall about the root of militant groups, to stop another October 7 of the origin in the tranquil refugee camps of Jenin or Tulkarm.
Politically it meets the demands of the utmost right in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that wants a return to war Gasa.
Therefore, it was introduced a few days after the Gaza wind was agreed. According to the UN, 40,000 people have already been displaced.
Zeinab Qasam, who is there to inspect her home in Tulkarm to an Israeli attack, says the area has become an ‘mini-gaza’.
Zeinab Qasam, who had to move her family three times since January
“People who lost their homes lost all chances. And they may not rebuild either. ‘
Zeinab and her family had to vacate three times since January 21.
Israeli forces fallen her neighbor’s apartment, shot through drawers and shot in the walls and ceiling. They kept her children at a gun point.
The walls of Zeinab’s neighbor’s house covered with gunshots
Zeinab’s neighbor’s house littered with broken glass and shrapnel
She looked carefully through the door to the street. “They’re still there,” she whispered.
“I have a daughter with special needs, so you can think that she can’t understand what’s going on, or what it means when a weapon is directed at her head,” Zeinab says.
“I was so scared that I started crying,” added her 12-year-old son, Assad. “They came in and they were so aggressive, they screamed so much.”
Zeinab’s 12-year-old son, Assad
Above, the IDF set up a sniper position, two holes for taking a gun through a piece of plywood. Therefore, moving across these streets is risky. You never know who you have in their sights.
The IDF has set up a sniper position on top of Zeinab Qasam’s apartment
“They want to build broader roads so that their missions become easier, so their operations against ‘terrorists’ are easier,” Zeinab says.
“I don’t even know who the terrorist is in this situation, the people who just sit still, will work, come home – how does it make us terrorists?”
On February 7, 10-year-old Saddam Rajab, who had been shot in the stomach ten days before during an Israeli operation in Tulkarm, was died of his wounds.
Saddam Rajab, 10
“He never woke up,” says his father, Iyad.
“But the first three days when I would walk in the doctor, he said he was feeling my presence. Its important signs would change. ‘
Saddam made his mother a call when he was shot.
The moment was caught on CCTV. There is a loud explosion and Saddam starts to move forward and screams and holds his chest.
The screams gradually fade as he loses the ability to move. Almost two minutes later, a desperate figure appears on crutches in the corner of the frame and tries to pull the boy to safety. This is Saddam’s father, Iyad.
Saddam’s father, Iyad
Iyad explains how, even when the ambulance came, he was prevented from going to hospital with his son while the IDF searched through his apartment building.
The ambulance that Saddam took to hospital was delayed for an extensive search on the way.
The next day when the boy was transferred to a larger hospital in Nablus, the ambulance was searched again. Critical, life -saving moments were lost.
“Shall I file a case against them? Yes, yes, I will. Not just because he is my son, the Son did nothing. He stood in front of his house, no one in the area was involved in clashes, there was no rock throw, there was no one armed in the area, nothing. ‘
Tulkarm Refugation Camp
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The IDF says their military police have opened a criminal investigation into Saddam’s case and that it cannot comment further when the investigation is underway.
It is said to have seized weapons and the terrorist terrorist in Jenin and Tulkarm, and continue to keep terrorists and eliminate.
Iyad describes Saddam as a quiet boy. He says Saddam was everything after he was injured in an accident and could only walk on crutches.
He would never think this could happen to his family, although incidents like this of young children killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank are all too frequent.
A toy lies under the rubble in Tulkarm
Saddam was empathetic, compassionate, a best friend to his older sister, Raghad, tells Iyad. “She and Saddam were two halves of one soul.”
Raghad’s screams about the funeral, in video Iyad shows me on his phone, is terrible to watch.
Saddam’s sisters Raghad (left) and Rafeef Rajab
He is concerned about the explosion of resentment and racism he sees around him, since October 7.
“My youngest daughter comes and asks me, ‘Where’s Saddam? ‘
“I watched the first Intifada in 1988 and then the second in 2000 and this war again. I’ve never seen anything similar. I’ve never seen an attack. For those who saw the first and second intifadas, they have “I will understand how it is much harder. ‘
Donald Trump said he will make a decision on the West Bank soon – after he was asked if he believed that Israel should annex the occupied territory.
This is an ominous sign. Whatever that could mean it is unlikely to account for the three million Palestinians which the West Bank calls their home.
