Israeli army continues incursions into Tulkarm, occupied West Bank

RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Israeli army continues on Saturday its operations in the Nur Shams camp in the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank for the third day in a row.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that, in the early morning hours, the army pushed more military reinforcements into the city and the camp amid a campaign of arrests of Palestinians.

The head of the Committee for Services in Nur refugee camp, Faisal Salama, said the camp is subjected to a “suffocating and tight security siege,” noting “continuous reinforcements with military vehicles and bulldozers.”

“The (Israeli) occupation forces surround the camp, arrest civilians, conduct searches, and bulldoze the infrastructure, fences, and residential homes,” Salama told Anadolu.

He pointed to "the killing of young people in their homes in cold blood, the arrest of hundreds in light of the continued interruption of water, electricity, and communications services."

“A number of citizens died inside their homes and ambulances were prevented from reaching them,” Salama added.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday that medical teams at Tulkarm Governmental Hospital had dealt with “one martyr and 11 injuries, including seven with live bullets since Thursday.”

“Medical teams were informed of the presence of a number of martyrs and wounded inside the camp and the (Israeli) occupation forces are preventing ambulance crews from reaching them," the ministry said.

“A volunteer paramedic who tried to reach the wounded was also injured by (Israeli) occupation gunfire,” it added.

On Friday, medical sources announced the killing of two Palestinians in the Nur Shams camp, while the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported the killing of five Palestinians in a house “to which the (Israeli) occupation prevents access.”

Late Thursday, the Israeli Army Radio announced that the army began implementing a "broad-scale military operation" in the Nur Shams refugee camp, without specifying the objective or duration.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with the Fatah party, and the Jerusalem Brigades, the military arm of the Islamic Jihad movement, announced in separate statements that they are engaging in fights with the army.

Parallel to its ongoing war on Gaza since Oct 7, the Israeli army has escalated raids and arrests in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem.

The destructive war on Gaza has resulted in more than 34,000 deaths and injuries, most of them children and women, along with massive destruction and a famine that claimed the lives of children and elderly, according to Palestinian and international data.

Israel continues this war despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire. Tel Aviv is also facing charges of committing "genocide" before the International Court of Justice.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi