Above photo: The Israeli army inspects ambulance teams in Jenin during the large-scale invasion of the northern West Bank, August 28. Shatha Hanaysha/Mondoweiss.
The Israeli army’s large-scale assault on the northern West Bank has entered its second day.
During a battle in Nur Shams refugee camp, the Israeli army killed wanted resistance fighter Muhammad Jaber “Abu Shuja’,” leader of the Tulkarem Brigade.
Casualties
- 40,602+ killed* and at least 93,855 wounded in the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health as of August 29, 2024. Some 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble.
- 664+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank, 5,600 wounded since October 7, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health as of August 29, 2024.
Key Developments
- Israeli forces kill at least 18 Palestinians, injure dozens as part of large-scale northern West Bank invasion since start of operation. Martyrs include 6 people in Tulkarem, 4 in Tubas, and 8 in Jenin, according to Wafa News Agency.
- Israeli army kills 68 Palestinians, wounds 77 in past 24 hours in Gaza, according to Gaza-based Ministry of Health.
- Israeli army announces large-scale military operation in northern West Bank, including Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas; claims operation largest in West Bank since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.
- Israeli army announces assassination of wanted resistance fighter and leader of Tulkarem Brigade, Muhammad “Abu Shuja’” Jaber, alongside four other resistance fighters.
- Israeli army announces on Wednesday death of two soldiers in fighting in Gaza over past 24 hours.
- EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says Israeli West Bank assault must not be “premises” of “war extension” from Gaza, including “full-scale destruction.”
- Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz says operation must deal with northern West Bank similarly to Gaza, including “temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents,” adding that assault is “a war in every sense.”
- UN’s World Food Programme pauses staff operations in Gaza after being shot at by Israeli soldiers at checkpoint, “despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach.”
West Bank Invasion: Day 2
The Israeli army’s large-scale military assault on the northern West Bank entered its second day on Thursday, August 29. Dubbed “Operation Summer Camps,” the Israeli army has deployed three separate brigades to invade the northern West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas, respectively. The primary targets of the attack are the armed resistance groups that have grown and developed in the north over the past three years, including the Jenin Brigade, the Tulkarem Brigade, and the Tubas Brigade. The Israeli army radio reported on August 28 that the operation in the northern West Bank is the largest of its kind since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, and is expected to last for several days.
Mondoweiss contributor and on-the-ground reporter Shatha Hanaysha has reported that the invasion of large swathes of these cities has concentrated in the refugee camps, involving the use of reconnaissance planes and helicopters, the entry of armored vehicles and D9 bulldozers into neighborhoods (causing widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure), the killing of at least 10 people during the first day of the invasion (mostly through drone strikes), and the injury of dozens more from gunfire.
Israeli forces have imposed a blockade on the cities of Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarem, closing streets and roads leading in and out of the cities. Israeli forces surrounded and besieged the main hospitals in Jenin and Tulkarem, preventing ambulance crews from reaching or leaving the hospitals and conducting detailed searches of medical personnel and patients.
Most of the Israeli army’s operations have taken place in Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem, Jenin refugee camp in Jenin, and al-Far’a refugee camp in Tubas, causing damage and destruction to civilian infrastructure and launching several airstrikes.
According to Al Jazeera, Israeli snipers stationed on rooftops in Jenin have been “shooting anyone who is moving,” which is how two people have been killed in Jenin. Al Jazeera also reported that the Israeli army continues to besiege Jenin Governmental Hospital and hampers the ability of ambulances to transport the wounded to the facility.
The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel Katz, said on X that the operation must deal with the armed groups “just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents,” adding that the Israeli assault is a “war in every sense.”
UN Foreign Policy chief Joseph Borrel took to X on Wednesday and warned against the West Bank operation from becoming “the premises of a war extension from Gaza,” asserting that Israel Katz’s statement threatened to “fuel further instability.”
The Israeli major military operation in the occupied West Bank must not constitute the premises of a war extension from Gaza, incl. full-scale destruction.
The parallel drew by Minister Katz, especially on evacuating Palestinian residents, threatens to fuel further instability.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) August 28, 2024
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said that the ongoing Israeli military operation was “deeply concerning,” calling for its immediate cessation.
As of the time of writing, the Israeli army has claimed that it has killed 12 Palestinian fighters, including five members of the Tulkarem Brigade allegedly holed up in a mosque in Nur Shams refugee camp. The army also reported earlier on Thursday that two of its soldiers had been wounded during the northern West Bank operation.
Tulkarem Brigade Leader Killed
On the second day of the raid on Nur Shams refugee camp, the Israeli army announced that it had targeted and killed five resistance fighters it alleged were stationed inside a mosque.
One of the slain resistance fighters was Muhammad Jaber, more commonly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Shuja’. According to local media sources, Abu Shuja’ had gained iconic status in the West Bank for successfully evading capture by the Israeli army for two years while in hiding, and had reportedly survived several assassination attempts. The Israeli army had previously announced the assassination of Abu Shuja’ back in April after a 50-hour gunfight in Tulkarem, only to later reappear on video flanked by resistance fighters bearing rifles and throngs of people from the camp greeting and cheering him during a funeral of slain resistance fighters.
This is insane.
Abu Shuja’, the most wanted resistance fighter in the West Bank, was pronounced dead two days ago, following the IDF’s deadly incursion into Nur Shams Refugee Camp.
Today, he has reappeared in public – it had been a ruse all along. https://t.co/0vtudV5zLk pic.twitter.com/wIKNBp7LQs
— Naks Bilal (@NaksBilal) April 21, 2024
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which forms a part of the Tulkarem Brigade, confirmed the death of Abu Shuja’ on Thursday in a statement, who was killed alongside four other fighters in a standoff with Israeli forces.
A month before his death, Palestinian Authority (PA) Security Forces attempted to arrest Abu Shuja’ while he was seeking treatment at a governmental hospital in Tulkarem following an IED manufacturing malfunction. However, bystanders in the hospital intervened, and Abu Shuja’ was seen carried out of the hospital by crowds of cheering supporters who had freed him from the grasp of the PA Security Forces.
▪️مشاهد للحظة خروج محمد الجابر “ابو شجاع” واستقباله محمولاً على الاكتاف في مخيم نور شمس شرق طولكرم pic.twitter.com/hAuImp2nDO
— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) July 26, 2024
Screenshots circulated on social media of Abu Shuja’s last Facebook post before his death, dated August 15:
“For me
I don’t think my heart will ever heal
I will keep feeling that I haven’t done enough for the rest of my life
Even though there isn’t anything I haven’t done
But I can’t shake this wretched feeling that takes over me every time I see the sacrifices of others and what has befallen them. My arrest, my time on the run, the loss of my home, my distance from my family, the loss of my brother Mahmoud and a number of my friends, all of it pales in comparison to a child who has lost his mother, a father who has lost his child, or a prisoner who will spend decades in prison and be deprived of his children.
I console myself that God has given me a purpose and that I have not chosen to retreat but to strengthen my resolve, and despite that, I remain with you. I console myself that if we emerge from this war alive, we will shoulder our responsibility and be a source of strength to those around us, and we will remain faithful to those who have sacrificed before us…
This is a duty we have been given, and I ask God to give us the ability to remain faithful to it.”
Israeli Army Targets Displacement Camp In Khan Younis
The ongoing genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip has continued across different parts of the beleaguered coastal enclave. According to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health on Thursday, Israeli forces had killed 69 Palestinians and wounded 77 others over the past 24 hours.
Wafa News Agency reported that eight people, including a young girl, were killed in an airstrike on a residential building west of Gaza City. Israel also bombarded the al-Shati refugee camp, and Israeli military ships fired heavy machine guns toward the al-Qarara beach in Khan Younis and toward a beach in Tal al-Hawa west of Gaza City, according to Wafa.
In Khan Younis, the Israeli army bombed a displacement camp housing Palestinian refugees. According to Al Jazeera, at least five people have been killed, while dozens, including women and children, have been injured.
The Israeli ground invasion of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip has also continued. The Israeli army has issued several evacuation orders for refugees and residents who had just arrived in Deir al-Balah two weeks prior from Khan Younis. One of the blocks given an evacuation order contains al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the last remaining functional hospital in the central and southern Gaza Strip. Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent Tareq Hajjaj wrote a report on al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital medical workers who refuse to abandon their patients despite the evacuation orders and fears that Israeli forces may commit a massacre at the hospital similar to the massacres committed at al-Shifa Hospital and Nasser Hospital.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Wednesday, August 28, that it would temporarily suspend operations across Gaza after a clearly marked vehicle belonging to the organization was targeted by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint and shot with 10 bullets, including “five on the driver’s side, two on the passenger side and three on other parts of the vehicle. None of the employees onboard were physically harmed,” the WFP said in a statement.
“The incident is a stark reminder of the rapidly and ever shrinking humanitarian space in the Gaza Strip, where increasing violence compromises our ability to deliver life-saving assistance. The already critical situation is exacerbated by restricted access and heightened risks, leading to decreased food supplies reaching those in desperate need,” the statement added.
WFP Executive Director, Cindy McCain, condemned the incident on X, calling it “totally unacceptable.”
“We have repeatedly asked for a functioning deconfliction system in Gaza, and yet the current arrangements have failed. Humanitarians are #NotATarget,” McCain said.