GENEVA, Switzerland: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Tuesday that an Israeli military operation in Jenin has turned the occupied West Bank refugee camp into a ghost town, causing destruction on a scale not seen there for over 20 years.
Two weeks after the Israeli military operation began, the Jenin refugee camp is largely deserted. Thousands of Palestinians have left their homes, taking only what they could carry, after Israel told them to leave through drones with loudspeakers, Reuters news agency reported.
UNRWA said the demolitions in Jenin “undermine the fragile ceasefire reached in Gaza, and risk a new escalation”.
It said Jenin, a township for descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, “has been rendered a ghost town”.
The UN agency said the Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank is heading in a “catastrophic direction”. It added that residents had “endured the impossible”.
The Israeli military launched a major offensive in the West Bank on January 21.
On Sunday, the army said that it had killed at least 50 militants since it launched the operation, while the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said Israeli forces have killed 70 people in the territory since the start of the year.
The operation has also seen troops levelling buildings in a refugee camp adjacent to Jenin.
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“The camp is going into a catastrophic direction,” UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told reporters in Geneva.
“Large parts of the camp were completely destroyed in a series of detonations by the Israeli forces. It is estimated that 100 houses were destroyed or heavily damaged,” she said, speaking from Amman.
“The residents of this particular camp have endured the impossible.”
She added: “This detonation that happened on Sunday was when children were supposed to go back to school.
“When it comes to UNRWA, 13 schools in the camp and the surrounding areas continue to be closed. That affected 5,000 kids in that area.”
Touma said UNRWA’s services inside Jenin camp have been interrupted for several months and stopped completely in early December.
UNRWA said it received no prior warning of the detonations, as contact between staff and Israeli authorities is no longer permitted.