Palestinian resistance has upper hand in flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin

By Hiba Morad

At least 10 Palestinians, all of them in the prime of their life, have been killed in the latest Israeli aggression on the occupied West Bank, with some observers describing it as the deadliest onslaught on the flashpoint city of Jenin in over 20 years.

Jenin, which has emerged as a focal point of confrontation between the occupying regime and the Palestinian resistance fighters, has reported eight killings, including two children, in the latest raid.

Thousands of residents in the Jenin refugee camp have been forced to flee in the wake of the Israeli military raid, which began in the wee hours of Monday, according to Palestinian media reports.

Palestinian health minister Mai Al-Kaila told Al Jazeera was quoted as saying that the situation in the Jenin refugee camp has become “very, very difficult”, with damaged water and electricity networks.

Palestinian foreign ministry on Monday called for urgent intervention of the international community to stop the displacement of Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp, with reports about many of them taking shelter in local hospitals.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has said that its fighters remain active in Jenin and that “all options” are on the table to “strike the enemy and respond to its barbaric aggression”.

Why is Jenin City important?

The Israeli occupation army has for long tried to stamp out the Palestinian resistance in the occupied territories, especially the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin, which has emerged as the resistance hub.

In the early hours of Monday, the Israeli regime announced an all-out assault on Jenin city and its refugee camp located in the West Bank in an attempt to annihilate the popular resistance.

Israeli newspaper YediothAhronoth said the decision was made in order to "subvert Jenin's armed infrastructure and detain its elements.”

Jenin is a camp of Palestinian refugees located on the outskirts of the northern West Bank city. It was set up in the 1950s and houses some 11,000 people.

Israeli regime sees the camp as a stronghold of Palestinian resistance groups that have been fighting the Israeli apartheid regime, and these fighters and groups are referred to as “terrorists” in Tel Aviv.

Hundreds of armed fighters in Jenin, young men who have suffered from the Israeli occupation, represent the resistance front in the city having affiliations with different Palestinian resistance movements, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, and form what is known as the Jenin Brigades.

As these resistance fighters stand in the face of Israeli regime soldiers and violent settlers who attack and vandalize the properties of the Palestinian people and kill innocent Palestinian citizens.

Jenin Brigades, according to the Jenin camp-based political Saleh AbouAzzah, has over a period of time developed the capability “to manufacture new explosive devices, which is a matter of concern to the Israelis who want to crush such power.”

“The Israelis see this as a matter of serious concern since they can no longer enter Jenin or any other Palestinian city safely due to the technology and development of explosive devices the Jenin Brigades owns and uses,” he told the Press TV website.

Therefore, Jenin and nearby Nablus are targets that Israeli forces want to totally destroy in order to take control of the situation, he added.

Will Israel be able to destroy the resistance?

On whether the occupying regime will be able to crush the popular Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, AbouAzzah said: “Absolutely not”.

“In this case, and through massive attacks and incursions, will Israel be able to destroy the resistance factions and annihilate them? Absolutely not,” he asserted.

Unlike the Israeli belief that it can destroy Jenin and the Palestinian resistance groups, AbouAzzah said the apartheid regime will surely fail in achieving its goal because it will not be able to kill all Palestinian resistance fighters or destroy all explosive devices factories.

AbouAzzah said there are hundreds of Palestinian resistance fighters in the Jenin camp and killing ten fighters or even a few dozens of them will not satisfy Israel, and that is why the deadly military raid is expected to extend for at least a few days.

He hastened to add that the Israeli regime is afraid that the occupied West Bank or neighboring Lebanese resistance would intervene in case it escalates attacks on the Jenin camp.

“Most probably, Palestinian factions outside the camp will wait a bit to see where things are going, but we cannot rule out the possibility that these factions or the Lebanese resistance will intervene at some point if needed,” the analyst told the Press TV website.

Also, an informed field source in Jenin told the Press TV website that the more Israeli forces try to enter the Jenin camp and advance in it, the fiercer and heavier the resistance will be.

“There is no doubt the Israeli army will fail not only in destroying the resistance but also in advancing its incursions with the presence of a fierce Palestinian resistance and the explosive devices which are a new element that changed the nature of confrontations between Israelis and the Palestinian resistance,” he noted.

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