Occupation’s aggression on Tulkarm enters first month of unprecedented escalation, displacing 15,000
The Zionist occupation’s aggression on the city of Tulkarm and its camp has entered its first month, and on the Nour Shams camp its 17th day, amid an unprecedented military escalation and a tight siege that has completely destroyed the infrastructure and property, WAFA news agency reported on Tuesday.
Since the start of the aggression, the occupying forces have imposed a strict siege on the Tulkarm and Nour Shams camps, conducting extensive raids on the city and surrounding hospitals. Additionally, homes were raided and turned into military outposts, while residents were expelled at gunpoint, resulting in a mass displacement of over 15,000 people from the two camps, according to WAFA.
Last night, the occupation forces sent additional military reinforcements, including vehicles and bulldozers, along with a large deployment of infantry squads across streets and neighbourhoods. They positioned themselves on Nablus Street, which links the Tulkarm and Nour Shams camps, setting up military barracks in three residential buildings opposite Tulkarm camp, the source said.
The occupation escalated its assault on Tulkarm’s infrastructure, bulldozing more streets and roads, which caused extensive damage to electricity, water, sewage, and communication networks. This has greatly impacted the remaining residents of Tulkarm and Nour Shams camps, deepening their hardship with critical shortages of food, water, medicine, and baby formula.
The Zionist occupation has been conducting its military assaults in the northern West Bank since last month, resulting in at least 60 martyrs and the displacement of thousands.
The raids were the latest escalation in the West Bank, where at least 923 Palestinians have been martyred and nearly 7,000 injured in attacks by the occupation forces and illegal settlers since the start of the Zionist occupation’s genocide in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Additionally, 365 Palestinian civilians from the Jenin and Tulkarem governorates were detained since Jan. 21.
The occupation “continues to escalate its operations of arrests and on-site investigations, particularly in the Jenin governorate and its refugee camp, as well as in Tulkarem and its camps, since the beginning of the current aggression,” the Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a statement.
The group described the occupation’s operations as “an extension of the systematic policy of arrests, which has escalated in intensity since the genocidal war.”
The statement noted that the ongoing and escalating arrest operations are accompanied by “summary executions, direct shootings or threats thereof, as well as severe beatings and on-site investigations affecting hundreds.”
