Israel’s two-day offensive, targeting Palestinian fighters after a recent wave of attacks, destroyed back streets and alleyways, sent thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes and left 12 militants dead. An Israeli soldier was also killed.
Although Israel said it had dealt a heavy blow to the Palestinian rebels, it is unknown whether the military operation will have a lasting effect in reducing the latest wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which has lasted for more than a year. The offensive also further weakened the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s former partner in the fight against the rebels, which already had little control over the camp.
Israel invaded the camp — long known to be a stronghold of Palestinian fighters — on Monday with the purpose, it said, of destroying and confiscating weapons. The Israeli government launched airstrikes and sent hundreds of troops in an operation that recalled the bloody period two decades ago known as the second intifada, or Palestinian revolt against Israel’s indefinite occupation.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, condemned the Israeli operation, calling it “appalling.” He said there were reports that 80% of the dwellings in the refugee camp were destroyed or damaged.
“They wanted to completely destroy the camp and they didn’t succeed,” he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York. “This is state terrorism in action.”
At the request of the United Arab Emirates, the UN Security Council scheduled closed-door consultations on the violence in Jenin for Friday.
Mansour said the Palestinians want the council to take steps to protect them, disarm Israeli settlers and authorize a temporary international presence.
Faraj al Jundi, who works in an ambulance, said he and his family fled their home Tuesday and stayed with a relative after it was hit in an Israeli airstrike.
“They attacked the house, the windows, the doors,” Al Jundi said when he returned to his home on Wednesday. “We have a destroyed house. We have broken windows. Everything has been lost, ”he lamented. “This aggression is truly appalling.”
Palestinians gradually filled the streets of the camp, a densely populated area of some 24,000 people that became a ghost town during the Israeli offensive. The roads are destroyed, with piles of broken asphalt and stones along the sides. There were wrecked or burned vehicles and the shops were closed. People gathered in the streets offered food to each other. Workers were fixing power lines and slowly restoring power to residents, but the water supply continued to be cut off.
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AP Writer Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations.
FUENTE: Associated Press
