Where should we go? West Bankon conflict leaves families homeless

Where should we go? West Bankon conflict leaves families homeless

Fatima Tawfeeq, 63 years old, has seen numerous Israeli military operations in occupied West Bank. She was a witness to the Israeli takeover of the Palestinian area in 1967 and experienced the repression during the first and second intifada, the violent Palestinian uprisings against Israeli control.

first displacement from your home

But for the first time she had to leave her home in only shams. As she reports, they were driven out of their house by Israeli forces at the beginning of this month, which is now being used as a military barracks.

"I've never seen such a Situation," she said in an interview with CNN from a wedding hall that was converted into a provisional protection accommodation. "I've never experienced anything like this. To drive us violently? Never. That is the first time."

Tawfeeq and their family belong to around 40,000 Palestinians who have been sold out of their houses at the beginning of an extended military offensive of Israel in the West Bank at the end of January, almost immediately after the armistice came into force in the Gaza Strip.

criticism of the military action

Israeli military leadership states to target Palestinian militant groups who have committed attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. However, Palestinians and human rights organizations criticize that the offensive is increasingly indiscriminately - civilians are killed and civilian infrastructures are destroyed, which is considered a collective punishment.

The Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz has declared that current military operation could continue until the end of the year and that displaced civilians are not allowed to return to their houses until the operation has been completed.

The reality of displacement

Tawfeeq, her husband and several of her grandchildren live together with other families on downstream sleeping mats and ceilings that were hung up to create family rooms. There is no central heating, and within the concrete it feels even colder than outside.

Your 11-year-old grandson Mahmoud sells the time by jumping from a stage in the hall next to her temporary quarters to the sleeping mats below. But he misses his home and remembers the moment when the Israeli armed forces asked his family and their neighbors to leave their houses at night.

"The Israeli military came and began to call loudspeakers," he said. "So everyone started packing and going." Mahmoud's mother hastily got him out of the house.

"I had no time to pack something," he says. "I didn't take anything with me. I only went with the clothes that I wear today."

The emotional effects

When Mahmoud tells of the events of that night, his 9-year-old sister Rou’ya begins to cry. In the middle of the trauma of her displacement, her mother had to leave her to take her younger brother to the hospital.

"I want mom," cries Rou’ya. She explains that she was very afraid of the military because she had never seen Israeli soldiers so close and feared that they would take her home and give it to Israeli settlers.

her grandmother, forced to leave her own home, worries about what the one -year military training will mean for you and your family, and becomes emotionally when you think of separation from your other grandchildren.

challenges of the community

"After all, they will stop wedding celebrations and we have to go. Then where should we go?" asked Tawfeeq. "A whole year is difficult." The prospect of long expulsion also contains the resources of communities such as Kafr al-Labad, which have taken up some of the displaced persons.

Amin Barghoush, a municipal representative of Kafr al-Labad, expressed: "We try to meet these needs with the support of local families and benefactors, but frankly this topic is a considerable burden and challenge."

he found that the support of the Palestinian Authority, some of which has been controlled by the West Bank, was minimal and the non -profit nature of its community is strained in view of a long crisis.

"The Tulkarem governorate has become one of the most affected areas. We may have one of the country's highest refugee populations," he said. "What we observe is comprehensive destruction, an economic blockade and the devastation of the infrastructure in the refugee camps."

extensive destruction

The way to the refugee camp only Shams, which was set up in 1952 to accommodate Palestinian refugees, has become unrecognizable. The surface was torn open by the Israeli military of the D-9 bulldobes-asphalt and piles of earth lie on both sides of the streets, often they get into shops and houses. Wastewater seeps into the muddy streets.

Inside the camp, the destruction is even more obvious. Some residential buildings were demolished; A hole was hit into the side of a mosque; Broken concrete parts provide insights into the interior of a house.

in parts of the warehouse - and this also applies to the camps in Jenin and Tulkarem - the destruction is similar to what the Israeli military has done in the Gaza Strip. In fact, Israel's military operations in West Bank are increasingly similar to those in Gaza. Drone attacks and air strikes are now carried out regularly while they were once a rarity. And for the first time in more than two decades, the Israeli military used tanks in West Bank this week.

In the Jenin Camp, the Israeli military carried out dozens of controlled explosions and destroyed buildings in which, according to its statement, explosives and other "terrorist infrastructure" were found. Jenin's mayor Mohammad Jarrar contradicts this claim and says that many of these buildings were houses in which dozens of families lived.

Since the beginning of the recent operation on January 21, the Israeli military has killed 66 people in the West Bank, according to the figures of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, whereby local civil servants were that the majority of the civilians killed were. The Israeli military leads to militants and announced on Friday that they have killed "70 terrorists" since the operation started.

a desperate wish for return

The effects of Israeli operation on civilians are, however, undeniable. In the cold wedding room, Rou’ya longs for the toys with whom she played in her room before she was read to stories. Mahmoud says he misses the privacy of his own room. Both want to go home.

"Even if you tear off our house, we will rebuild it," said Mahmoud. "The camp is better. We have our family and our friends."