Displaced and devastated: The Nakba continues as thousands of Palestinians left in uncertainty after fleeing Jenin refugee camp

Dozens of Palestinian families in the West Bank city of Jenin are trapped in an unknown fate following the loss and destruction of their homes after Israel’s military launched a brutal raid on the refugee camp.

In the largest deployment of forces on a single Palestinian community in the West Bank since 2002, the Israeli army pushed hundreds of soldiers and armoured vehicles into Jenin, preceded by military bulldozers razing streets, and airstrikes from drones and helicopters on the centre of the camp.

At least 13 Palestinians were killed while more than 100 were wounded in the raid, with at least 20 more in critical condition, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The attack, which began overnight on Monday, has been described by residents as the most brutal escalation by Israeli forces against the camp in twenty years.

On Wednesday morning, the Israeli army put an end to its aggression. However, dozens of families are now stuck in limbo, not knowing what is to come next after losing their homes, with many worried about being able to rearrange their life once again.

Mohammed Baajawi is among the many now facing homelessness. He tells The New Arab how his family survived an Israeli airstrike targeting their house after receiving a phone call and being told to evacuate immediately. 

“The Israeli occupation put my family and I under pressure. We did not have a long time and we did not know what we should do," the 55-year-old father of four explains. 

"My wife was screaming saying that we need to leave. There was heavy gunfire and tear gas canisters launched by the Israeli forces so it was hard to move around. I thought we were the only family who had to evacuate their house, but when we came out, I saw hundreds of people also trying to escape," he adds.

"We did not realise what was happening; we only heard the explosions everywhere and the chaos that had surrounded us." 

"It's as if the refugees in the camp were destined to face this war from generation to generation"

There was no certainty for Mohammed nor his family that they would get to safety, as he explains that they were convinced they would be killed by the army.

The ground and air attack on the camp caused water and electricity outages, and entire families were left for hours in their destroyed homes without any working basic services, Mohammed told The New Arab, as he puffed on his cigarette in anger.

"The Israeli forces did not even allow any of the displaced families to take any necessities or items from their homes with them — we just had the clothes we were wearing." 

Mohammed also noted that among the displaced were mainly children and youngsters, who were not even born during the invasion in 2002. "It's as if the refugees in the camp were destined to face this war from generation to generation."

The Jenin public hospital took in the largest number of wounded and casualties since early Monday. A first responder in the hospital's emergency unit, who asked not to be named, told The New Arab that the "wounded arrived by the dozens throughout Monday, to the point that the emergency unit was overwhelmed."

"Most of the wounded were hit in the abdomen, the chest or the back, the majority of them young," said the medical worker. "The hospital itself was targeted with tear gas by the occupation twice, once on Tuesday morning and once in the afternoon."

The situation was not any better for Khadija Al-Fran, 52, who also left the camp with her family to one of the city's hotels that had opened its doors and hotel rooms for free to displaced families.

“My family decided to go out in search of a safe place, but all we could hear were children's screams, the sounds of explosions and the planes roaring above,” she told The New Arab. 

"We left our home on foot until we reached the camp yard. Here the scenes were indescribable, there was destruction everywhere, and even the water and electricity lines were no longer standing. We were living in a new catastrophe," Khadija said in reference to the Nakba, when 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed and forced from their homes to make way for the establishment of Israel in 1948.

"The atmosphere inside the camp was terrifying," she continues with tears in her eyes. "Families were gathered in just one room, embracing each other, expecting the walls to come down at any minute." 

Mohammed and Khadija are among the 2,000 and more Palestinians who have fled their homes to local hospitals, PA facilities, and hotels, according to Mahmoud al-Saadi, a spokesman for the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Jenin.

Mahmoud told The New Arab that the association's crews "faced difficulty in evacuating citizens due to the presence of the army at the camp's entrances... hindering the movement of ambulances that needed to transport the elderly and the sick."

Umm Abd al-Rahman and her family were also stuck in a state of panic for several hours, as the mother reveals how she was unable to find out if her young son, who was inside the camp, was okay or not.

She was later told that he was slightly injured by shrapnel from Israeli shelling.

"My son was born during the invasion of the camp in 2002," Umm Abd al-Rahman tells The New Arab. "And our house was burnt down and we were displaced at that time. Today, we are facing the same difficult conditions, this time on more extreme levels," she says, adding that the size of the Israeli forces was "one we have not seen before."

Umm Abd al-Rahman added, "The size of the attack on a camp that is so small and densely populated in comparison, just highlights the weakness of Israel and how their fragile government only wants to show that it is victorious over the camp."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had instructed the government to provide all the required needs to provide relief to "our people in the Jenin camp in light of the widespread aggression against them by the Israeli occupation forces."

According to a statement distributed to journalists, Mahmoud Abbas had instructed the government to harness all the capabilities of the state to help "the displaced who were forced to leave their homes under force and at gunpoint by the occupation forces."

Jenin's refugee camp — a small and densely populated urban area — was established in 1953 to accommodate Palestinians who were expelled in 1948 from more than 50 villages and cities. They are banned from returning to their original homes while Palestinian aspirations for an independent state appear as remote as ever after years of stalled peace efforts.

The camp has a population of about 14,000 refugees living in an area of 450 dunams (a dunam is equivalent to 1,000 metres) with the UN agency stating that children spend their time in the camp between areas that are either too cramped or too dangerous to play in.