Israel destroys neighbourhood in Jenin refugee camp, damaging hospital

Israel continued its large-scale military operations in the occupied West Bank, heavily bombing the Jenin refugee camp and destroying multiple residential buildings. Videos posted on social media by local residents show large areas of the refugee camp reduced to rubble. According to Wafa News Agency, Israeli forces detonated explosives and almost simultaneously destroyed nearly 20 buildings on the eastern side of the refugee camp.

The director of the main government hospital in Jenin, Wissam Baker, told Wafa News Agency that the explosions damaged parts of the hospital. As of now, there have been no reports of casualties. Previously, Wafa News Agency reported that a 73-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed in Jenin earlier on Sunday. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that its staff found the body of Waleed Rahilou at the entrance of the refugee camp and transported it to the hospital. Rahilou's death brings the total number of Palestinians killed since Israel launched its military assault on Jenin 13 days ago to 25.

According to Wafa News Agency, Israeli bulldozers have leveled approximately 100 homes in the refugee camp, and local hospitals are facing severe water shortages after Israeli forces damaged pipelines. About 35% of the city's population is without access to water. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023, attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank have surged, resulting in hundreds of deaths.

In the early hours of Sunday, Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in the Arab al-Mleihat community northwest of Jericho in the occupied West Bank. Hassan Mleihat, head of the local Bedouin rights organization Al-Baydar, told Wafa News Agency that the settlers poured flammable materials inside the mosque before setting it ablaze. The fire destroyed all items inside the mosque, including the Quran, and firefighting efforts were unsuccessful. Community official Suleiman Mleihat told Middle East Eye that four settlers infiltrated the area between Ramallah and Jericho in the early hours from their recently established pastoral outpost.

The fire also affected residents' properties located near the mosque. Settlers often use grazing as a pretext to attack the community's residents, including stealing and destroying their property, or directly assaulting them. "Settlers periodically poison the livestock that Palestinians raise here, or deliberately trample them, knowing that livestock is our main source of livelihood," Mleihat added. Settlers also do not hesitate to shoot at livestock grazing near the community and have closed all grazing areas, preventing Palestinians from accessing them. "We demand protection for the community's residents and the rest of the Bedouin communities, who are suffering unprecedented attacks by settlers aimed at seizing land," he said. The fire reportedly engulfed the entire building, completely destroying it. Wafa News Agency added that the group also burned a tractor.

These actions occurred as the Israeli parliament voted to pass a draft law allowing settlers to own and purchase land in the West Bank, which would allow for an unprecedented acceleration of settlement expansion. During the Gaza war, settlers established seven new settlement outposts in Area B of the West Bank, which Palestinians see as a dangerous escalation that will lead to more land being taken. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that "settler militias and their terrorists" are increasingly attacking Palestinian citizens and their property. In a statement, it condemned the "acts of aggression by the occupation and its settlers" in the occupied West Bank and called for international intervention. "The Ministry is deeply concerned about the colonial projects that fuel this ongoing aggression, and holds the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for the impact on efforts to establish calm, ceasefires, and end the cycle of war," the statement said.