As the truce is extended in Gaza once more, attacks across the West Bank have increased, threatening the ability of hospitals to operate as the number of wounded increases. Overnight on Tuesday, Israeli forces entered Jenin refugee camp, a half-square kilometer camp home to more than 17,000 displaced Palestinians, killing four people, including two children, and cutting off two main hospitals in Jenin as casualties started to mount. According to medical sources, during the operation, Israeli forces impeded the work of paramedics and denied access to a hospital. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Israeli forces had blocked the entrance of the Jenin government hospital for 40 minutes, preventing medics from transferring a patient with a gunshot wound in the leg to the hospital. The patient was later arrested.
There were also reports from the Palestinian Wafa news agency about raids on homes in the east of the city, with bulldozers knocking out electricity and destroying critical infrastructure. The raids also resulted in the detention of 21 Palestinians, which comes amidst a growing crackdown on civil liberties in the West Bank.
Since October 7, more than 3,000 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, with many detainees held on administrative detention without charge. Since a truce was announced, 180 Palestinian prisoners have been released – a number far outstripped by the rapid increase in arrests.
Lina*, living in Jenin, said:
“This is too much! This uncertainty kills me. Every night, we expect them to enter the city, we can’t sleep, we can’t operate normally, we are always alert. I was not able to sleep all night last night; the noise was very high [and] horrible, with shots and sounds of bombs. What kills me is the attack on the hospital of Jenin. I can’t imagine us without a hospital properly working”.
Israeli forces carried out a large-scale military incursion predawn on Thursday into the city of Tulkarem and its refugee camp, causing heavy destruction to the streets, vehicles, and property. Attacks on Palestinians by Israeli forces and settlers have spiked since October 7, killing at least 238 – 63 of them children – according to UNOCHA. Already, 2023 has been the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since OCHA began recording casualties in 2005.
Noor*, a mother in ActionAid’s network in Jenin, described the devastating loss of her 14-year-old son:
“My son was killed while he was standing at the door of the house with his brothers. A sniper shot him. We took him immediately to the hospital, and there they announced him dead. He died in my arms. The pain is huge, and I don’t know how I am going to survive his loss”.
Riham Jafari, Advocacy and Communication Coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, said:
“As the world rightly focuses on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it cannot continue to ignore the pain and trauma of whole neighborhoods across the West Bank. For families living in Jenin Refugee Camp, there has been no cessation of violence, and the death toll has risen once again. Today, they grieve the loss of loved ones, two of them children. They live in fear, if not for becoming another victim of the violence, they fear the threat of arrest, [and being] treated like a criminal just for going about their daily lives.
With Israeli forces impeding the work of medical staff in hospitals, injured people cannot access care – how many more will die? It is deeply concerning to see families in Jenin and the rest of the West Bank continue to live without their basic human rights.”
**Name changed to protect her identity.
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About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 15 million people living in more than 40 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.
