TULKAREM, (PIC)
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed, after midnight on Wednesday, the city of Tulkarem and its refugee camps, Nour Shams and Tulkarem, from the southern and western sides, amid fierce clashes with resistance fighters.
Israeli troops were escorted by dozens of military vehicles and bulldozers, with large reinforcements. The IOF has been enforcing a curfew on Nour Shams camp in the city of Tulkarem for the second day Thursday, after the IOF soldiers besieged the camp.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced that its crews dealt with 17 casualties during the IOF ongoing raid on Tulkarem city and its two camps, revealing that 13 of whom were injured by severe beatings that caused several fractures. Three of the wounded were injured by shrapnel and one by live bullets.
The IOF also prevented ambulance crews from reaching the injured under the pretext of having no prior coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Media sources reported that the IOF blew up 6 houses in Nour Shams camp. The resistance fighters responded by firing a barrage of bullets and detonating explosive devices, Molotov cocktails, and homemade bombs toward the Israeli military vehicles.
The resistance fighters were also engaged in violent clashes with the IOF on several axes in Tulkarem camp, Nour Shams camp, and the city of Tulkarem, while video clips documented a military vehicle being dragged after being hit with an explosive device.
The IOF soldiers encircled hospitals in the city of Tulkarem. Meanwhile, Israeli military vehicles accompanied by D9 military bulldozers headed to Nour Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps in the city.
The IOF deployed snipers on several buildings inside and around Nour Shams camp, amid armed clashes that erupted on the outskirts of the camp.
The occupation forces carried out a massive arrest campaign in Nour Shams camp, while IOF soldiers were throwing leaflets announcing a curfew until further notice.
Large forces of the Israeli occupation army, accompanied by police dogs, stormed dozens of homes in the neighborhoods of Nour Shams camp, wreaking havoc and vandalizing property and infrastructure, assaulting and arresting house owners and tearing pages of the Holy Quran.
The IOF vehicles also bulldozed the squares and streets of the Tulkarem camp, especially in Schools Street and Al-Murabba’a neighborhood in addition to several other locations. The bulldozers also destroyed the water network in Tulkarem camp.
Violent clashes and confrontations broke out between young men and the IOF in Tulkarem camp, amid heavy gunfire. The sounds of explosions were heard from time to time, while reconnaissance aircraft and an Apache helicopter flew in the sky of the city and its camps at a low altitude.
Meanwhile, Israeli military bulldozers carried on with their destruction and vandalism operations in the streets and alleys of the Tulkarem camp and in several neighborhoods, destroying infrastructure and water lines, storefronts, commercial establishments, and several homes, amid heavy firing of bullets by the IOF soldiers.
The occupation forces also continued their aggression on Nour Shams camp by breaking into the camp’s homes in all its neighborhoods, vandalizing their contents, and arresting their owners, while large numbers of occupation soldiers were deployed in the neighborhoods of Al-Manshiya, Al-Damj, and Al-Nasr.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said that since Thursday morning hours, the Israeli forces have been raiding facilities in Nour Shams camp and carrying out extensive field investigations of dozens of Palestinians, noting that because of the continuation of the military operation, they have not been able to confirm the exact number of detainees.
The Society pointed out that during the arrest campaigns in the camp, the IOF assaulted the residents with severe beatings, threatened them of arresting their families, and subjected them to field investigation, amid sabotage and destruction of Palestinian homes and infrastructure and intensive shooting with the aim of killing.
The Society also affirmed that the IOF continued to carry out widespread arrest campaigns in the West Bank, resulting in the arrest of at least 40 Palestinians including a girl, a journalist, and two brothers of martyr Thaer Abu Assab who died in an Israeli jail.
The arrests were concentrated in the town of Jabal Al-Mukaber in Occupied Jerusalem and Al-Khalil Governorate, while the rest of the arrests were distributed among the governorates of Jericho, Qalqilya, Tubas, Ramallah, and Nablus.
This brings the total number of arrests after October 7 to about 5,600 detainees. Since the beginning of this year, about 100 Palestinians have been rounded up by the IOF.
