TULKARM, January 31, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces Friday evening blew up houses in the northern occupied West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarm, according to eyewitnesses.
They said that sounds of explosions could be heard in the camp, particularly in the An-Nadi neighborhood, with plumes of smoke billowing into the sky due to blowing up several houses and torching plastic covers, resulting in large-scale damage to civilians’ property.
They added that the occupying forces deployed patrols in all of the camp neighborhoods, and forced civilians out of some houses and high buildings, turning them into snipers’ positions.
The occupying forces are still evicting residents of Tulkarm camp at gunpoint, as part of an ongoing five-day siege.
Earlier this evening, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) medics managed to enter some neighborhoods to deliver basic needs to besieged families. However, they were obstructed by Israeli soldiers.
The occupation forces continue to launch large-scale aggression on the city and the refugee camp of Tulkarm for the fifth day in a row, disrupting the provision of basic services, namely water, electricity, and telecommunications, to the residents and leading to a sharp shortage in food, potable water and medicine supply, including infant formula.
This comes as the occupation forces continue their offensive on the Jenin city and refugee camp for the eleventh consecutive day, plowing through infrastructure, causing extensive property damage, obstructing the movement of medical crews and ambulances, killing 19 Palestinians, injuring dozens, and rounding up scores.
This also comes as the occupation forces tightened military measures across the occupied West Bank hours after the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire went into effect, dismembering and isolating cities and governorates one from the other using military gates, barriers, and concrete blocks.
The Israeli military measures are in parallel with ongoing attacks by Israeli colonists across the West Bank to terrorize Palestinians and displace them from their lands to seize them and build illegal Jewish colonies that separate Palestinian communities.
Israeli severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement within the occupied West Bank through a complex combination of approximately 898 fixed and flying checkpoints and gates, including 18 gates that have been installed since the start of 2025 and 146 others installed in the aftermath of October 7, 2023, settler-only roads, over 200 military bases, and various other physical obstructions.
Closures besides other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 58-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.
K.F.
