‘This will be a disaster’: Israeli raids uncertainty for thousands of people from West Bank Camps

“The army forced us, my wife and family. We did not take anything with us.”

Alaa ofi is trying to find out how to manage his heavy changed circumstances.

“We left behind what we have done at our documents, clothes and home.”

It has been a month when the Israeli army raided the Tulram refugee camp, causing thousands of residents.

In the office of the local Palestinian Governor, we found the displaced camp residents in search of assistance.

Some were struggling to find an affordable location to rent. Others like Mr. Olfi needed to regain important items, but were prevented by the Israeli army from returning to their homes.

“My wife is expecting a child next week,” said Mr. Olfi. “I can’t take him to the hospital because I need an insurance letter and my ID, but they were left behind at home.”

What is being called Israel “Operation Iron Wall” against Palestinian armed groups, has triggered an exodus of about 40,000 people from four camps in the north of the occupied West Bank: Tularma, Noor Shams, Genin and Faha.

Assistance agencies are calling it the biggest forced displacement of Palestinians in West Bank It was captured by Israeli forces during the six -day war of 1967.

This is also the first time a camp, which was established for Palestinians in the early 1950s, who fled or operated from their homes during the War of Israeli’s independence, has been almost completely evacuated.

Since the operation began in January, Israeli forces have pledged roads and demolished houses.

On the eastern side of the Tulkaram camp, a wide mark appears where there were once tightly packed houses. Israeli soldiers can be seen patrolling which now looks like a road.

Somewhere else, the roads are churned in the camp, the armored bulldozers are the earth piles and mud water pools. The frontal and shop fronts have been released.

A solid United Nations sign which was now standing at the incomplete main entrance of the camp is knocked out.

According to the United Nations, at least 51 Palestinians, including seven children, have been killed by Israeli forces at the Northern West Bank since the onset of the operation.

Three soldiers have also been killed by Palestinian gunmen, one of them during the exchange of fire in Genin and two other people in an attack on an outpost in Tubas, say this.

The Israeli army says it is dealing with Palestinian terrorist groups, based inside the camps – the group blames it for a string of roadside bomb attacks on Israeli soldiers and citizens.

On Sunday, Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katj, said that the army “was in war with Islamic terrorism in Judea and Samaria” – the word Israel is used to describe the West Bank.

He said that he had instructed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to “prepare for long -term preparation in the camps for the coming year”.

At the same time, Katz ordered the tank to be ranked in the Genin Camp and the surrounding city for the first time in the Genin Camp and the surrounding city.

Beyond the government outlines the difficult message, it is not clear what role four tanks will play.

A military officer said, “The IDF is working within a very complex urban environment.”

“We have done that in Gaza, we have done in the villages of Southern Lebanon,” the official said, referring to the wars of Israel with Hamas and Hizbullah.

“We are doing those neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria because due to the danger we are facing.”

Military officials say there is no order to vacate citizens.

“The IDF has allowed local residents who want to distance themselves from war areas to safely leave through the designated crossing,” the army said in a statement.

But the residents of the camps say they were forced to leave, some of them under fire.

Others say that the instructions to leave were given by drone.

A video of Genin featured a drone flying over the camp, which transmits a message.

“Get out of your homes, the army will be here,” says the message.

Recently appointed Palestinian Governor of Tulkaram, Dr. Abdullah Kemil, Operation Iron Wall is called the “declaration of war”.

“You are talking about an operation of destruction,” he told the BBC. “Financial and mental destruction of residents. These are things that Israel has planned accurately.”

The objective, they say, to the residents of the camps have to create “a hostile environment”, in the hope that they leave and absorb in the general Palestinian population.

Meanwhile, Palestinians find themselves a host of new difficulties, big and small struggle.

To the south of Genin, in Kabataya village, we found that a driver tried to get out of a dirty pit released by a Israeli bulldozer, dug on the road.

His car was stuck in the middle of the road, holding traffic in both directions.

At the center of a nearby roundabout, a short replica of the prestigious dome of the Jerusalem was broken into pieces.

Despite Israel Katz’s warning, no one knows how long the operation, and the ban on citizens, will run.

“If we cannot go back to our home for a year, it is going to be a disaster,” says Ala of I.

“We will be stuck on the streets with children.”