Jenin, West Coast
CNN
—
Last month, Mohammed Abu al-Hayja was sleeping with his wife and two young daughters when loud gunshots woke them up. Minutes later, Israeli soldiers smashed through the door and stormed into his apartment.
“They spread throughout the house in seconds,” al-Hayja, 29, told CNN. “Two soldiers came up to me, told me to get up, one said to me, ‘Leave your daughter with her mother,’ then he grabbed me and handcuffed my hands behind my back.
Al-Hayja’s traumatic clash with Israeli security forces occurred as they carried out what they describe as an anti-terrorist operation in the heart of the Jenin . refugee camp on January 26. The building they were targeting was only a few meters from his house.
“Security forces worked to arrest a terrorist team belonging to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Israel Security Service and the Israel Border Police said in a statement. joint statement, hours after the raid.
According to Palestinian officials, 10 Palestinians were killed in Jenin, including an elderly woman. Another Palestinian was killed in what Israeli police called a “violent disturbance” near Jerusalem hours later, making it the bloodiest day for Palestinians in the West Bank in more than a year. CNN profile. As violence increased in the area, at least seven people were killed and three wounded in a shooting incident near a synagogue in Jerusalem a day later, according to Israeli police.
In Jenin, Al-Hayja vividly recalls the events of January 26, explaining that after being handcuffed, an Israeli soldier took him to the bathroom and forced him to his knees, before wrapping himself in a towel. around the head.
Contained, blindfolded and trapped in the bathroom, al-Hayja then began hearing gunshots from inside his apartment. “I can hear, and if I concentrate, I can hear one of the soldiers talking to my wife,” he said.
Al-Hayja said that he was able to convince the soldiers to let him go to his wife. Still blindfolded, he crawled into his living room as bullets flew over his head.
Israeli soldiers removed one of his benches and set up a shooting position by the window to provide cover for their units to engage nearby Palestinian gunmen. An Israeli military spokesman told CNN that using apartments like al-Hayja’s to provide fire support is “standard operating procedure.”
A representative of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) visited Jenin in the days following the incident and spoke with al-Hayja and his family. “Their children are traumatized,” Adam Bouloukos, UNRWA’s director of West Coast affairs, told CNN. “This type of aggression not only violates international law but also violates general principles.”
When the Israeli soldiers opened fire, the Palestinian gunmen returned fire, their bullet holes dotted in the door and wall of the house. Al-Hayja showed CNN a bag of used shell casings, which he said the Israeli soldiers had left behind. “They fired a lot of bullets,” he added.
While they did, al-Hayja and his wife lay on the floor hugging their young daughter for more than three hours. Their oldest daughter is 2 and a half years old, the youngest is 18 months old. “Honestly, I think I have a 1% chance of survival,” he said.
Moments later, an explosion rocked the apartment. He later discovered that Israeli soldiers had set up a second firing position in his bedroom.
They saw through window bars and fired rockets at the building where the gunmen were staying, with scorch marks on al-Hayja’s ceiling.
“I said to myself, we’re going to die,” he said.
From the top of al-Hayja’s building, the vast Jenin refugee camp stretched toward the horizon and up into the hills. What used to be makeshift huts is now a more fortified-looking sandstone slum, stacked on top of each other.
Below is the building targeted by Israeli soldiers. The structure was so damaged after the raid that local officials decided it would be safer to flatten it down. On the rubble, people have placed banners with the faces of some of the dead – they read “martyrs”, – and a lone Palestinian flag.
Although the operation was one of the deadliest in years, for residents, such Israeli incursions were all too frequent. Posters commemorating others who have perished in confrontations with Israeli security forces over the years line walls throughout the neighborhood.
The IDF said the attacks were targeted, targeting terrorists and that they opened fire when those they were looking for fired at them.
But the people of Jenin see it differently. “Israelis raided the camp and they shot at anything that moved,” paramedic Abdel-Rahman Macharqa told CNN.
The 31-year-old has witnessed many gunfights in Jenin and says the situation is becoming more and more dangerous, even for life savers like him.
“Surname [Israeli soldiers] shot me five times,” Macharqa said. “We don’t feel safe, even in uniform.”
“When we said goodbye to our wives and children to go to work, we knew we could be martyrs,” he added.
Macharqa witnessed part of the raid in Jenin as it took place on January 26. Medical staff tried to help one of the three civilians Israeli officials believe were killed there. , along with seven gunmen.
“They opened fire on him and he was hit three times,” he recalls. Macharqa said he pulled the man out and tried to resuscitate him, but he died.
“We deserve to live,” Macharqa said. He is frustrated, not only by Israel’s actions, but also by what he sees as the international community’s passive attitude and double standards.
“Israelis think he is a terrorist, but the Ukrainians, when they defend themselves from the Russian invasion, is that terrorism?” he asked.
On the day of the raid, Ziad Miri’ee rushed out the door after hearing gunshots. He saw an Israeli soldier shoot through his car to hit a young man next door.
“Our neighbors there tried to pull him off (out of the way),” he said. “The child is dead.”
Miri’ee, 63, said he is one of Jenin’s oldest residents, but he also believes the situation is getting worse.
“In 2002, when they raided the camp and razed the houses, it was much easier than the three-and-a-half hour raid last week,” he said. At that time, during the second intifada, Israeli forces occupied the camp, destroying about 400 houses.
“The year 2002 is childish compared to what happened here last week. We couldn’t step one meter out of the house because the bullets were coming in,” he said.
Miri’ee believes the situation is bound to get worse, as frustration with the profession grows, the lack of a future ahead is causing more and more young people to join the ranks of militant organizations like St. Islamic war.
“Yes, there are many more [fighters] from this generation,” he said. “This generation was born in war.”
Upstairs in Miri’ee, al-Hayja is still shaken by the traumatic experience. In his house there is no room for bravery, only concerned with the safety of his daughters.
“I don’t interfere or get involved in these things, I just come home from work and it all falls on me,” he said. “You’re in your city and you’re not safe, you’re in your house and you’re not safe.”
He added: “You are not safe from the occupier of your land. “You’re not safe at all.”
