By V.E.K.Madhushani, Jadetimes News
Residents Stand Firm Amid Violence and Devastation, Vowing to Stay Despite Ongoing Conflict
Majdi was at home with his three children in the Nur Shams refugee camp when Israeli armored bulldozers approached. The bulldozers pushed against the front wall of his house, smashing through the staircase and balcony. “The bulldozer kept coming closer to the house,” Majdi said. “It lifted the rubble near those two windows above. It was trying to hit them.”
Residents near the camp entrances often leave when they hear Israeli forces approaching, but Majdi chose to stay. “Why would I leave?” he said defiantly. “We won’t leave. We are staying here. We either go back to our lands [in what is now Israel] or stay here and die. There are no other options.”
At least four men were killed in the Tulkarm area, which includes Nur Shams, during Israel’s two day military operation, including at least two who were fighting Israeli forces. “Every time one of us is killed, ten more are born. We are crushing them, and hopefully, our children will also crush them,” Majdi added.
Although Israeli forces pulled out of Nur Shams on Friday morning, their broader operation across the northern West Bank continues. Israel says the goal is to dismantle armed groups operating in the area.
Among those killed during the operation was 69 year old Ayed Abu Hajja, a disabled long term resident of Nur Shams. Neighbors said he was shot by a sniper when he opened a window in his home. On Friday, his body was carried through the narrow streets to his mother’s home before being buried.
A large crowd of young men gathered to escort his body to the cemetery, while others honored Mohammed Jaber, a local armed group leader also killed in the Israeli operation. Jaber was remembered with bursts of automatic gunfire a show of force from Tulkarm’s fighters less than a day after the army’s withdrawal.
Inside Nur Shams, the Israeli operation has left a trail of destruction: houses burned, walls demolished, and entire buildings reduced to rubble, creating precarious paths through the camp’s main streets. A child, around six or seven years old, was seen picking up a bright yellow toy walkie talkie from the debris of his grandmother’s house.
Standing nearby, Fadwa Abu Ayad, whose path to the street was blocked by the rubble, described how the army accused her of harboring tunnels used to smuggle armed groups, similar to those in Gaza. “They told us that we have tunnels like in Gaza,” she said. When asked if this was true, she responded, “It’s impossible.” Fadwa showed where the soldiers had drilled into her floor, revealing a small pipe and sewer drain, far too small for any person to pass through.
“What is happening in the [West Bank] camps now is like a small version of Gaza,” Fadwa said, referencing the ongoing conflict since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, which triggered the Gaza war.
Further along a shattered street, covered in broken glass and burned debris, Umm Yazan spoke from a window above. She recounted how the army laid wires from her home to blow up two neighboring houses. “I have 10 year old triplets, and they trapped us in a room,” she said. “Then they started the explosions five in total. Imagine the walls shaking and your young children clinging to you. It feels like we’re in Gaza.”
Israel maintains that its operations in the West Bank are aimed at dismantling armed groups that it claims are funded and armed by Iran. However, Umm Yazan argued that the army should focus on targeting fighters and avoid involving civilians. “Are there fighters in my house? I have young children; my husband has an Israeli work permit. My house is a safe house.”
Comparisons to Gaza are becoming increasingly common in Nur Shams. While the conflict between Israel and armed Palestinian groups in the West Bank is different from the war in Gaza, recent events have altered attitudes and tactics on both sides. The war has changed how Israel perceives the threat from armed groups in the West Bank and is influencing its response on the ground.
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