Relentless Israeli night raids stir new front in West Bank as resistance fighters mobilise

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The sirens echo from every mosque’s loudspeaker, their sound piercing the quiet night in Jenin, announcing the imminent arrival of the Israeli army.

Those who live in the city’s refugee camp here in the northern occupied West Bank know the drill: many families hastily pack up a few belongings, jolt their children out of bed, then escape on foot or in their cars. During the now almost nightly army raids, it’s better to be anywhere but the camp, residents say.

As civilians flee or bunker up, the men who call themselves Jenin’s resistance fighters prepare to face the Israeli soldiers – often what follows is a battle that lasts all night: rounds of artillery, machinegun fire, Israeli drone strikes.

Daybreak reveals deaths, bulldozed streets, bullet-riddled homes. Amid all this, people are trying to navigate daily life: children sit outside or play football with their friends; men meet for sugary black coffee after work, women chat with their neighbours by the roadside. But fear and exhaustion are widespread.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, raids and arrests throughout the West Bank have picked up, as have violent attacks perpetrated by Israeli settlers living illegally in the territory.

In the refugee camps – most of which were set up shortly after the Nakhba – the forced displacement of Palestinians upon the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 – resistance is growing.

Tahani Mustafa, the International Crisis Group’s London-based senior Palestine analyst, said that there likely are no more than 40 fighters per camp, but that Israel might be opening up more fronts than they can manage.

“They might be creating a situation they could be losing control over,” Ms Mustafa said. “These fighters feel like they are being deprived of their freedoms, while Israel is getting away with impunity,” she added.

“Allegiances are however very fluid and constantly shifting, depending on who is willing to equip and support the fighters.”

For Jenin’s residents – the camp with its narrow clusters of stone houses is home to some 11,000 people – the constant cycle of violence has become unbearable.

“Life here is terrifying at all times. There are drone strikes; there’s death everywhere,” Kefah Amouri, 49, a mother whose 26-year-old son Weam was killed during a recent raid, told media.