Tensions run high in West Bank's Jenin refugee camp
A Sky News team travelled to Jenin, where they met a Hamas fighter who vowed they would not stop their violence and fully supported the 7 October attacks on Israel conducted by their counterparts in Gaza.聽
Thursday 9 November 2023 22:22, UK
Israeli forces have conducted drone airstrikes and engaged in major gun battles in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in what the Palestinian Health Ministry said were the deadliest army raids in years, killing 18 people.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the operation in Jenin located IEDs planted by terrorists.
It comes just a day after a Sky News team travelled to Jenin, where they met a Hamas fighter who vowed they would not stop their violence and fully supported the 7 October attacks on Israel conducted by their counterparts in Gaza.
In the Jenin refugee camp, there have been almost daily raids by the Israeli army and intense clashes with militants.
The Israeli Defence Forces say it is a nest for terrorism. The militants say they are fighting against Israeli oppression.
We wanted to see the dynamics on the ground and find out why it's become such a hotbed of clashes.
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As we drive in, the gates to the camp had been crushed - the Israeli authorities have been bringing in bulldozers. But still visible are many posters celebrating the fighters. Many in the camp view them as heroes defending their own land, not terrorists killing civilians.
On the outskirts of the camp is what locals call the graveyard of martyrs - home to many who died trying to bring all Israeli occupation to an end in the West Bank - despite the fact Jenin has been nominally administered by the Palestinian Authority since the 1990s.
It's where we meet a Hamas fighter, carrying a rifle and wearing a mask. It is deeply unsettling. And it soon becomes disturbing and shocking as he tries to defend the attacks of 7 October.
'Everyone was proud and I am proud," he tells me. "We feel that it's the first step in the way of liberating our country and the blood of our children is not wasted...
"I see it from my side, as a Palestinian. It was supposed to happen a long time before."
As someone who has spent time in the Forensic Centre in Tel Aviv seeing images of torture and extreme brutality, it is horrific to hear.
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He has been emboldened by the past month, made more defiant by the images of civilians dying in Gaza and he says he's willing to carry out attacks himself, willing to sacrifice his own life for the cause.
Despite the clear evidence that civilians were killed in the horrifying attacks one month ago, he denies those murders were carried out by Hamas.
But that is exactly what happened in an utterly brutal attack, with many slaughtered in their own homes - their last terrified moments captured on cameras.
I think of all the families of those who have died who I've spoken to in the last few weeks, traumatised and grieving and others whose loved ones are being held hostage.
But truth and trust are being lost in this conflict and this is a community that for decades has felt marginalised, alienated and deprived.
"This is our country, our home, our land," the fighter declares.
While Hamas fights to keep control of the Gaza Strip, here in Jenin they are fighting what they see as Israeli oppression.
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Recently, the IDF hit the Al-Ansar mosque in the camp where the group was operating.
It says it thwarted an "imminent terror attack." Inside, you can see the tunnel they destroyed - proof of the threat that exists here and the clear danger.
The day after tensions were extremely high.
The camp erupted in some of the worst violence since the war began. The IDF carried out multiple airstrikes and engaged in heavy clashes.
In a statement the IDF said it "engaged and killed an armed terrorist cell which endangered the soldiers in the area" and located and destroyed an underground tunnel shaft containing ready-to-use explosive devices, as well as ammunition and military equipment.
It sees the refugee camp as a nest of terrorism and reportedly dropped leaflets over that read: "The IDF remains here and will return again and again until terrorism is completely eradicated. Stay away from terrorism, live in peace."
But peace feels a very, very long way off.