NUR SHAMS REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (news agencies) — An Israeli army raid in April set off a near three-day gunbattle with Palestinian militants. By the time it was over, homes had been blasted to rubble and many residents had fled.
The raid wasn’t in Gaza, where Israel is at war with Hamas, but more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank — a territory that has been under Israeli military rule for over a half-century.
The persistence of Palestinian militancy in the West Bank, and its surge since the war in Gaza began, shows the limits of Israel’s military might as the decades-old conflict grinds on with little prospect of a political settlement.
Israeli leaders portray the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Hamas’ last bastion, suggesting that a long-elusive victory in the war ignited by the militants’ Oct. 7 attack may be at hand. They have vowed to maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In the West Bank, that approach has been met with waves of armed struggle over the years. The battered streets of Nur Shams are testament to a low-level but stubborn insurgency and offer a vivid illustration of what Gaza might be like after the war.
Nur Shams, in the northern West Bank, is one of several urban refugee camps that date back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what became the new state.
The impoverished camps, scattered across the Middle East, have long been bastions for Palestinian militants. Residents of Nur Shams are used to army raids but say the Apr. 18 operation was unlike anything they had ever seen.
Gunfire and airstrikes rang out late that evening. Over the following three days, Israeli troops advanced deep into the camp, raiding homes, demolishing buildings and digging up roads and sewage pipes with armored bulldozers.
“You feel that these forces come here to train in the camp before they go to Gaza the next day,” said Qasim Nimr, a prisoner rights advocate who sheltered in his home during the raid. His nephew and his neighbor were among 14 Palestinians killed in the raid, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Nehayah al-Jundi, a community activist who runs a center for disabled children, said over 60 homes in the camp have been destroyed by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, as well as one of the few recreational centers in the deprived area. She said 72 families have had to relocate.
The Israeli army said in a statement the raid targeted militants. Armed groups active in the camp said 10 of the slain Palestinian men where militants.
A military official, who was not authorized to brief media and so spoke on condition of anonymity, said the demolition of homes and roads was to root out land mines and underground weapons caches.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says over 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war. Most have been killed during Israeli raids and violent protests, though the dead also include innocent bystanders and Palestinians killed in attacks by Jewish settlers.
The military official said the army has stepped up operations because of a rise in attacks on Israelis, adding that it can operate with a freer hand now that it no longer has to worry as much about retaliatory strikes from Hamas in Gaza.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant group operating in Nur Shams, initially announced that its leader in the camp, known as Abu Shujaa, had been killed.
But then the wiry-framed commander made a surprise appearance at the funeral for the other militants. In a video published on social media, he is seen being hoisted into the air by a cheering crowd as nearby militants offload rounds of celebratory gunfire.
Leading militants are reticent to appear in public, but signs of their presence are everywhere.
A large black Islamic Jihad flag billows at the entrance to the camp, and the streets are lined with posters depicting slain fighters seen as martyrs to the Palestinian struggle. Young men and also children carrying walkie-talkies patrol the alleys beneath black plastic canopies hung to conceal their movements from Israeli aircraft.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three territories for a future state. The last serious peace talks broke down more than 15 years ago, and Israel’s government is opposed to a Palestinian state, partly because it fears that Hamas would end up ruling it.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority administers parts of the occupied West Bank, including the camps. It cooperates with Israel on security matters but rarely confronts the militants directly, which would be seen by many Palestinians as collaborating with the occupation. Al-Jundi said Palestinian security forces have not operated in the camp since the war in Gaza began in October.
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