The atmosphere in Jenin refugee camp feels like one I have witnessed elsewhere – in Gaza, after wars with Israel.
But this is the occupied West Bank; where the dynamics are very different. Now it seems like a fast descent into something far more dangerous is already happening.
The destruction in the camp following the Israeli army’s biggest assault there in 20 years is massive.
As hundreds of troops entered the camp on Monday morning, the army fired missiles from drones – air strikes have not been used in the West Bank for two decades – and tore up roads to clear them of what it said were militants’ roadside bombs.
Fierce gun battles broke out between the troops and Palestinian militants and continued until Israeli troops withdrew on Tuesday night.
Now for the first time in safety since Sunday, thousands of residents pour into the streets to see the destruction themselves.
They clamber over rubble, take photos on their phones of the wreckage and compare experiences, pointing out which homes were raided, whose sons have been detained, and where the dead fell. One man walks up to me saying it reminds him of pictures from Turkey and Syria earlier this year – after the earthquake.
The UN said there was significant damage to water and power networks inside the camp
Cars lie crushed and tossed aside where they were hewn out of the path of Israel’s D9 armoured bulldozers. The tarmac is torn up, lying everywhere in huge chunks. We walk along what was underneath the streets: rubble, sand and dust.
Many homes have no water or power. Aid volunteers bring crates of bottled water. They join the recovery workers – some driving the few diggers available. One is removing a downed tree from the top of residential building. It shears away part of the facade of a shop on the ground floor, falling perilously close to us.
Source: bbc.com
