The Israeli army says it killed ten people and arrested eight others on Saturday April 20 during an operation in the Nour Shams camp, near Tulkarem, in the north of the occupied West Bank.
An Agence-France-Presse (AFP) correspondent on site said he heard explosions and gunfire on Saturday morning. He adds that he saw a house explode and drones fly over the camp. In images shot by the agency, military vehicles and soldiers can be seen roaming the alleys of the camp.
“Security forces eliminated ten terrorists during clashes,” the army wrote in a statement, adding that it had been carrying out this operation “for more than forty hours” against Palestinian armed groups.
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health reports “several deaths and injuries within the camp.” He also accuses the army of preventing medical teams from helping the injured. A rescuer was, according to him, among the injured. According to residents contacted by AFP, there is no more electricity, food is starting to run out and no one can enter or leave the camp.
An “unprecedented” incursion
“The siege of Camp Nour Shams has continued for more than forty-two hours,” Muayad Shaaban, head of the Commission for Resistance to Settlement and the Separation Wall between Israel and the West Bank, told AFP. “This incursion is unprecedented (…). There are snipers on the roofs and special forces are deployed” in the camp, he added.
A 16-year-old boy died after being “hit in the head by Israeli gunfire” in the Tulkarem displaced persons camp, the Palestinian Health Ministry and Palestinian news agency WAFa announced Friday, which further reported the death of a 30-year-old man, also shot. Traders were on strike Saturday in Tulkarem to protest against the raid, according to the agency.
The Nour Shams raid comes against a backdrop of intensifying violence in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7 by the Hamas attack in southern Israel. Since the start of hostilities in the enclave, at least 479 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank.