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| Jenin Refugee Camp: Answers to Three Key Questions for Understanding Israel's Largest Military Operation in 20 Years |
Hundreds of Israeli soldiers are stationed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank region of Jenin, and at least 3,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes due to the fighting.
Israel launched a massive military operation in the Jenin refugee camp on Monday in what is being called the biggest operation in 20 years. As a result of the Israeli operation, according to reports so far, at least 11 Palestinians have been killed and 100 injured, 20 of whom are in critical condition.
Israeli troops are facing the Jenin Brigades, a unit made up of various Palestinian militias based in a refugee camp in the center of the city.
According to the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA), about 14,000 people live in this camp in an area of less than half a square kilometer. Now here is just the fight scene.
The aim, according to the Israeli military, is to destroy "terrorist infrastructure" and disarm militias.
But the BBC's Jerusalem correspondent, Yolande Kannell, warned there was a "risk of a further Palestinian backlash, including from Gaza".
Yesterday, a car ran over seven people in Tel Aviv, seriously injuring three. The Islamic organization Hamas attributed the attack to the military operation in Jenin and described the attack as "heroic".
What is the cause of military operation on the fetus?
Violence around the camp has escalated in recent weeks.
Last month, on June 20, seven Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on Jenin, in which the army used an attack helicopter.
The next day, two Hamas militants shot and killed four Israelis at a gas station and a restaurant near the town of Ali, 40 kilometers south of Jenin.
After the attack, hundreds of Israeli settlers destroyed and burned houses and cars in the nearby town of Tarmsaya. A Palestinian was also shot dead here.
Soon after, an Israeli drone killed three Palestinian militants in Jenin. Allegedly, the three had attacked an army post near the city.
The latest wave of violence has led to a major military operation in the West Bank, the biggest in recent years.
Israel claims that its targets are not Palestinians, but "Iranian-funded militias" such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Koh calls "terrorist organizations."
For Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shatia, the operation is "a new attempt to destroy the camp and displace residents", and he has assured that "as long as this criminal occupation continues, the Palestinians will not surrender".
The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams says hard-liners in Israel's right-wing government have been pushing the army to crack down for months. But apparently, some within the Israeli military were against it because they feared it could further inflame an already volatile situation.
Adams says that there have been large-scale raids against militant groups in the past in Jenin and elsewhere, but such operations have fueled violence rather than solving problems.
Why is Genin like boiling lava?
Adams says Jenin is one of the places in the West Bank where a new generation of Palestinian militants has taken hold.
This young militia has never seen peace. They do not think there is any possibility of a diplomatic solution to this dispute. They have absolutely no faith in their political leaders. So they are fighting against the occupation in the way they think they should fight.
According to UNRWA data, of the 19 refugee camps in the West Bank, Jenin has the highest rate of poverty and unemployment.
BBC Arabic Service Correspondent Alaa Dargme, who has seen the number of militants grow from tens to hundreds in just two years, says that, given this desperation, Israel's security measures in the West Bank Armed resistance have increased rapidly.
Palestinians insist that Israel must stop building settlements in the West Bank, which have multiplied in recent years and which the current Israeli government has no plans to ban.
According to Mustafa Barghouti, who leads the National Initiative Party, 'The main question is, why are young people taking this path?'
They keep saying that this is because we have been living under (Israeli) military occupation for 56 years while the world has done nothing to stop it. These young people are frustrated because the international community has allowed Israel to continue the occupation.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), which has administrative and security responsibilities in parts of the occupied territories, has also lost control of the Jenin refugee camp, BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen says.
Bowen says the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, which has not held elections in years, has lost its authority in the eyes of many Palestinians.
"The Palestinian Authority cannot do anything to protect Palestinians from the activities of the Israeli security forces and, in particular, from settlers living in state-sponsored settlements, which violate international law," says Bowen. '.
Jenin AsylumWhat is the history of Gaziantep Camp?
The camp was built in the early 1950s to house Palestinians displaced during the 1948-49 war, pitting the newly formed state of Israel against its Arab neighbors.
At least 750,000 people had to flee their homes in what Palestinians call the Nakba or the Catastrophe.
The Second Intifada (2000-2005) saw a renewed wave of violence in the Israeli and Palestinian Territories and the Jenin camp became the main source of tension.
Following the April 2002 suicide bombings in Israel (in which many of the attackers were reported to be from the same town), Israeli forces launched a massive raid on the camp that lasted 10 days and became known as the 'War of She became known as Janine.
At least 52 Palestinians, half of them civilians, were killed in the fighting, while 23 Israeli soldiers were also killed. About 400 houses were destroyed and a quarter of the population lost their homes.
A UN report subsequently criticized Israel for not allowing humanitarian workers to enter the refugee camp and the Palestinian side for hiding militants in civilian homes.