Israeli forces flee Jenin amid “violent” clashes
TEHRAN- In yet another military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Israeli forces were met with fierce clashes by Palestinian resistance, forcing them to withdraw, but not before murdering a 15-year-old teenage girl.
The occupation’s vast military power stormed the city of Jenin and managed to arrest three young men using special forces. Video clips from surveillance cameras installed in Jenin show how the Israeli forces entered the camp with the vast backing of military reinforcements.
Military incursions in Jenin have become a regular occurrence this year. The regime has been storming the city in pre-dawn raids on an almost daily basis now. The latest invasion comes just days after Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in a separate raid on the refugee camp.
On this occasion, heavily armed clashes broke out between the Jenin Battalion of the Palestinian resistance and Israeli forces.
The Jenin Battalion announced that "Its members discovered a private Israeli force in the vicinity of the camp, and they are engaged in violent clashes and are targeting a force of the Israeli occupation army with heavy shells of bullets and explosive devices." It noted that “large quantities” of bullets had been used.
Perhaps out of desperation or just for their pure amusement (as has been documented before), an Israeli sniper also murdered Jana Majdi Issam Zakarneh (15 years old).
The Jenin Battalion further announced that it had targeted a gathering of Israeli military vehicles with a large number of high explosive devices, achieving direct hits "in response to the cowardly assassination."
The clashes led to Israeli forces withdrawing from the camp, with the national and Islamic forces in Jenin announcing a day of mourning for the slain child.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed the death of the kid, Zakarneh, in the Jenin governmental hospital, saying she was shot directly in the head while she was standing on the roof of her family's house in the Bayader neighborhood of Jenin.
Three Palestinian civilians sustained injuries during the heavy exchange of fire between the two sides. The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed that three people were wounded by live fire on the outskirts of Jenin, and said that they arrived at the Ibn Sina specialist hospital in Jenin to receive medical treatment.
Reports say a Palestinian was arrested in the eastern neighborhood of the city with local sources saying "a special Israeli force arrested a young man from the outskirts of the camp, after charging at him from several entrances."
In a press statement, Hamas stressed that the “blessed resistance rising throughout the West Bank and al-Quds (Jerusalem) is capable, God willing, of avenging the blood of the martyrs, curbing the occupation’s aggression, and achieving victory for Al-Aqsa Mosque."
The movement has also “saluted the heroes of Jenin, who repelled the occupation forces' storming of the city and engaged in violent clashes with it,” calling on the residents of Jenin to continue to mobilize and monitor the enemy and target its sites, soldiers and settlers illegally squatting on Palestinian land.
This while an Israeli military correspondent for the Israeli "Kan" channel, said that the Palestinians have obtained and published pictures of sensitive maps that fell from the Israeli occupation soldiers during the raid on the Jenin camp.
The channel said, "the incident is under investigation by the Israeli army."
An Israeli journalist who identifies himself as a military correspondent for the regime's media, said in a tweet he posted on social media: "It appears that a soldier accidentally dropped a map in Jenin during the raid this morning."
He pointed out that the map, which the Israeli channel "Kan" described as "sensitive", contained secret names linked to the various routes the regime’s forces use to enter Jenin.
Palestinian youth in Jenin have reportedly been seen in possession of pictures containing information about sensitive military data.
Meanwhile, the Gaza-based Hamas political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh, has said that since its inception and until this day, and until it achieves “alongside our people our aspirations for freedom and the return of independence”, will remain the movement's sole aim.
During a speech at an event marking the founding of the movement’s 35th anniversary, Haniyeh said “we commemorate a glorious and great anniversary, the anniversary of the launch of Hamas, which marked an important shift, and ushered in a new era in the course of the struggle with the Zionist enemy."
He added that the occupied “West Bank has been subject to a great conspiracy in an attempt to extend Zionist influence over (al-Quds) Jerusalem and the West Bank, change landmarks, and build settlements and the (apartheid) wall.”
And he stated that despite all the conspiracies, the West Bank is today witnessing an escalating resistance and an influential presence highlighting the steadfastness of the Palestinian people.
Further touching on the Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank, he said al-Qassam (Hamas’s military wing) in the West Bank, the newly formed Lion’s Den in Nablus, the Jenin battalion, and the perpetrators of individual operations shows that “we are facing a new phase of confrontation with the enemy.”
He pointed out that at this stage in time, the West Bank will witness “more steadfastness and resistance, and our people in the West Bank will not accept the enemy's policies. We and our people are the ones who build equations in the West Bank with steadfastness and resistance.”
Haniyah says the latest Israeli elections in the entity brought out the worst in "Zionism and the upcoming government poses strategic threats to al-Quds (Jerusalem)” as well as the issue of settlements.
“If the next Zionist government believes that it is able to implement its plans in al-Quds and the West Bank, then it is delusional, the West Bank will turn into a firestorm in the face of the occupier.”
He highlighted that “one of the challenges we face on the anniversary of the launch of Hamas is protecting al-Quds, in particular the al-Aqsa Mosque, liberating Palestinian prisoners, breaking the siege on Gaza, and preserving the right of return.”
And he emphasized “I salute all the sons of our Palestinian people and our righteous martyrs, led by the founding sheikh, Imam Ahmed Yassin, and a great group of leaders of the movement who watered this pure land with their blood. I salute our prisoners in the prisons of the Zionist occupation who are waiting for the shackles to be broken and the hour of freedom,”
Haniyeh reiterated that Hamas will spare no effort to release them in a new prisoner swap agreement at any cost.
The top Hamas official extended his affection “to our wounded brothers along the path of resistance and on the battlefield of this blessed homeland.”
"Hamas has long been committed to the unity of the Palestinian people at home and abroad in the face of the Israeli occupation and its schemes," Haniyeh also pointed out.
Leave a Comment