After wreaking havoc, serious injuries, IOF withdraw from Tulkarm

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
31 Dec 2023 13:20
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Israeli occupation forces storm Tulkarm only to be met with fierce confrontations by its people.

White smoke from tear gas fired by Israeli occupation forces spreads behind burning tires on a barricaded street as armored Israeli vehicles raid the city of Tulkarm, in the occupied West Bank, Palestine on November 14, 2023. (AFP)

The Palestinian Resistance reportedly targeted an Israeli occupation infantry force in Tulkarm, on Sunday, after an IOF convoy raided the city.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades confirmed that its fighters were actively involved in confrontations on multiple fronts in the city.

The Brigades also announced that its fighters attacked an Israeli infantry force in Tulkarm's western neighborhood, causing injuries among its soldiers.

🚨HAPPENING NOW: Israeli forces are breaking into the West Bank city of Tulkarm and the Nour Shams refugee camp, bringing several bulldozers with them. pic.twitter.com/kYxCOln2SI
— In Context (@incontextmedia) December 30, 2023

Videos circulated on social media depicted a convoy of Israeli military vehicles, including an armored bulldozer, raiding the area.

⭕ The occupation army obstructs the work of ambulances in the vicinity of Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem. pic.twitter.com/fBEICemf2T
— Palestine Captives 𓂆 (@Palestinecapti1) December 31, 2023

The video from the location captured the sound of gunfire and loud explosions, along with an Israeli bulldozer visibly demolishing a section of a residential building, not to mention that the IOF prevented the work of ambulances in the vicinity of Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarm.

In a related development, local sources told Al Mayadeen that Israeli occupation forces withdrew from Tulkarm after approximately 10 hours of surrounding the area, leaving casualties, including critically wounded Palestinians, and wreaking havoc in the area.

Repeated attacks on the West Bank

At dawn on Sunday, Israeli occupation forces reportedly raided the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm, as well as the Askar camp in Nablus in the northern West Bank with a significant number of forces.

Local media sources also reported that the Israeli occupation deployed a drone to bombard the vicinity of a street in Tulkarm, resulting in injuries to two Palestinian youths, one of whom sustained critical injuries.

Earlier reports confirmed that the Israeli occupation had the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm surrounded as it called for backup to storm the camp amid ongoing confrontations and sounds of explosions.

Israeli occupation forces heavily deployed tear gas at one of the northern entrances to the city of al-Khalil and they had the Thabet Thabet hospital in Tulkarm surrounded, sources told Al Mayadeen.

People familiar with the matter said the occupation forces raided the village of Telfit, south of Nablus, and the village of Iraq Burin, southwest of the city, where its troops raided several homes.

The occupation forces raided the home of Palestinian Arif Kaddoumi, wanted by the Israeli army, in the town of Kafr Qaddoum, east of Qalqilya, before ransacking it and arresting his father, Marwan.

In parallel, Israeli occupation forces called in bulldozers to destroy the infrastructure in al-Maslakh neighborhood of the Nur Shams camp.

'Alarming' violence

UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Friday that the surge in violence in the occupied West Bank, triggered by Israeli security operations and settlers that are actively targeting Palestinians, is profoundly concerning.

"The escalating violence in the occupied West Bank, including intensified Israeli security forces operations, high numbers of fatalities, settler violence, and attacks on Israelis by Palestinians, is extremely alarming," the statement read.

Mass arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli forces! pic.twitter.com/fMcrbu9a1k
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) December 31, 2023

This comes after the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report describing the worsening safety conditions Palestinians in the West Bank and Occupied al-Quds have been subjected to by the Israeli occupation since its monstrous war on Gaza on October 7.

Subsequently, the UN has urged "Israel" to "end the unlawful killings" of Palestinians under the badge of human rights, which have deteriorated into nothingness as a result of brutal settler and military violence.