JENIN (AFP) – The Israeli army withdrew from the city of Jenin and its refugee camp yesterday after a 10-day operation that left 36 dead across the occupied West Bank, witnesses said.
After days of destructive incursions by soldiers backed by armoured vehicles and bulldozers, residents who had fled began returning to their homes in the camp, a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel, AFP journalists said.
On August 28, the army launched a military operation in several cities and towns of the northern West Bank including Jenin.
It said in a statement yesterday that Israeli forces “have been conducting counterterrorism activity in the area of Jenin”, without confirming a withdrawal.
“Israeli security forces are continuing to act in order to achieve the objectives of the counterterrorism operation,” the statement said.
Over the course of the operation in Jenin, Israeli forces killed 14 militants, arrested 30 suspects, dismantled “approximately 30 explosives planted under roads” and conducted four aerial strikes, the statement said.
One Israeli soldier was killed in Jenin, where most of the Palestinian fatalities have occurred.
Aziz Taleb, a 48-year-old father of seven, returned to his family home of 20 years to find soldiers had raided it.
“Luckily the children left the day before. They went to stay with our neighbours,” he said.
“If they had stayed, they would have been killed without warning or anything,” he said as he surveyed the damage, glass crunching under his feet.
Many homes in Jenin camp were damaged or destroyed by army bulldozers and pavement was stripped from the roads.
Residents used bulldozers of their own to begin clearing the rubble yesterday after Israeli armoured vehicles left, AFP journalists reported.
The early trickle of returning residents turned into a flood, and soon children were playing in the streets.
