Israeli bulldozers have demolished large areas of the now virtually empty Jenin refugee camp and appear to be carving wide roadways through its once-crowded warren of alleyways, echoing tactics already employed in Gaza as troops prepare for a long-term stay.
At least 40,000 Palestinians have left their homes in Jenin and the nearby city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank since Israel began its operation just a day after reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza after 15 months of war.
“Jenin is a repeat of what happened in Jabaliya,” said Jenin municipality spokesperson Basheer Matahen, referring to the refugee camp in northern Gaza that was cleared out by the Israeli army after weeks of bitter fighting. “The camp has become uninhabitable.”
He said at least 12 bulldozers were at work demolishing houses and infrastructure in the camp, once a crowded township that housed descendants of Palestinians who fled their homes or were driven out in the 1948 war in what Palestinians call the ‘Nakba’ or catastrophe at the start of the state of Israel.
He said army engineering teams could be seen making preparations for a long-term stay, bringing water tanks and generators to a special area of almost one acre in size.
The camps, permanent symbols of the unresolved status of 5.9 million Palestinians, have been a constant target for Israel which says the refugee issue has hindered any resolution of the decades-long conflict. But it has always held back from clearing them permanently. Yesterday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denied that the operation in the West Bank had any wider purpose than combating Hamas.
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