“Battles of Jenin”… 85 years later Israel is repeating the actions of the British

On Sunday morning, medical sources at Al-Rashi Hospital in Jenin announced the death of a young man as a result of being injured by shrapnel fired by a drone on a group of youths in the eastern part of the city. According to the Palestinian news agency “Wafa”, the Israeli forces’ invasion of the city and its camp lasted for 3 days.

The incursions have killed 11 Palestinians and arrested hundreds, bringing the death toll in the West Bank since October 7 to 294.

Jenin and its camp residents have been living under a complete siege for several days, and they have appealed to international organizations to bring food and bread into the camp, while Doctors Without Borders said the blockade there is putting lives at risk. Access to hospitals.

History of Jenin

Although the city of Jenin is small, it is one of the most famous phases of Palestinian history. It is located in the north of the West Bank, on the northern slopes of the Nablus Mountains and 75 km from Jerusalem.

• It was founded by the Canaanites and was continuously occupied in the past until it was subjected to a French campaign led by Napoleon Bonaparte at the end of the 18th century.
• It opposed Napoleon’s campaign and, along with the Ottomans, inflicted heavy losses on his army. So he ordered to burn it.
• It was under British Mandate in the 20th century and then the British left after the establishment of Israel in 1948. During that period, the people of Jenin fought against the British and Jewish colonies, especially the Great Revolt in 1936.
• In 1938, the British demolished large parts of the city’s historic buildings. In revenge for the killing of one of his officers at the hands of a rebel named “Ali Abu Ain”.
• Since the beginning of the conflict with Jewish settlers, its name has been associated with Iss al-Din al-Qassam, after which the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, is named. He was killed in Ya. Bad forest in the city in 1935.
• As for the Jenin camp, it was established in 1953 within the boundaries of the Jenin municipality and covers an area of ​​0.42 square kilometers. It houses Palestinians displaced from Carmel in Haifa during the 1948 war. Among them work in agriculture, and many suffer from unemployment, as their job opportunities inside Israel are limited by the construction of the separation wall, UNRWA said.
• It saw a number of armed conflicts during the Palestinian uprisings of 1987 and 2000, the most famous of which was the April 2002 Israeli siege, which the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat described as “Jenin Grad”. German siege of the Russian city of Stalingrad during World War II.
• In the same year, the Israeli army launched a comprehensive invasion of the camp known as the “Battle of Jenin”, which killed at least 52 militants, Palestinian civilians and 23 Israeli soldiers. The surgery lasted 10 days.
• There is a government hospital in the city of Jenin that was established during the reign of the Jordanian administration and is named after Dr. Khalil Mahmoud Suleiman.
• In 2022, the city, its encampment and its villages were among the primary targets of Operation Breakwater, allegedly to arrest those planning Palestinian attacks on Israel.

What is the Jenin battalion that Israel is targeting?

Jenin returned to the forefront of events after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation last October 7. A place where operations are carried out against Israeli forces attacking the city.

The “Genin brigade” stands out among these operations, which announced in a statement last Thursday that it had shot and killed two Israeli soldiers on the street connecting the city and its camp.

The Israeli army previously killed the battalion commander, Muhammad al-Zubaidi, during an operation inside the Jenin camp last November.

The battalion appeared in 2021, and its founder is believed to be Jamil al-Amori, who was assassinated by Israel in June 2021. He is a key leader in the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement.

The number of its fighters is unknown, but it shows its strength in military parades or during funerals of fighters killed during conflicts.

View of Jenin and Gaza

Commenting on current events in Jenin to Sky News Arabia, military expert Wassef Erekat said Israel was “repeating the scene of the siege of the Gaza Strip”.

He elaborates that the occupying forces prevent ambulances from taking the wounded to hospitals. They continued to bleed to death in the streets, and in the midst of this, raids were launched in the villages of Fagoa, Jalbon and Nuslet Zeid, and military checkpoints were set up on the Jenin-Haifa street and at the entrance. In the villages of Rummana and Thanak, they searched for the residents’ identities and houses.

Erekat says the complete blockade will also include the destruction of buildings and infrastructure by military bulldozers.