The United Arab Emirates has promised to donate $15 million to help rebuild the Jenin refugee camp.
The funding pledge comes after a two-day incursion destroyed the camp’s narrow roads and alleyways. The operation, meant to crack down on Palestinian militants after a series of recent attacks on Israelis, sent thousands of people fleeing their homes. Twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in the fighting.
Israel’s fierce raid saw bulldozers tearing through streets to clear a path for the hundreds of soldiers deployed.
Israel launched the operation in the camp, long known as a stronghold for Palestinian militants, on Monday, July 3, 2023 and withdrew its troops on Wednesday, July 5, 2023, revealing a scene of destruction.
Residents of Jenin’s refugee camp started coming out of their homes on Wednesday morning after the army left. They discovered mountains of debris and streets strewn with burnt and smashed cars.
Roads were reduced to piles of broken asphalt, stones and rocks lying on the sides. They began to rebuild the site.
The UAE’s state-run news agency reported that the money would be granted to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the U.N. agency that assists Palestinian refugees, to rebuild damaged homes and businesses. The funding will also go into the agency’s services.
Unfortunately, the UNRWA was not spared in the raid. The agency disclosed on Wednesday that some of its own facilities, including the windows and walls of a health center and the road leading up its school, were damaged.
Also on Wednesday, a funeral procession was held for the 12 people who were killed in the Israeli raid. Thousands of Palestinians came out to take part in the funeral procession.
Dismayed by the inability of the Palestinian Authority; the body that controls some parts of the West Bank, to push back against Israeli forces, angry crowds kicked three senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials out of the funeral procession for those killed during the Israeli raid on Jenin.
Meanwhile, Israel has signalled that the just ended incursion will not be the last. Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant said that he gives the army “freedom of action” to deal with the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
“From our point of view, this is not the end of the story. Just as we acted with strength here, we will act after this with whatever strength is required in a specific place or in the entire refugee camp.”
Yoav Gallant
Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu also averred that the military will do what it can to fight the “terrorists”.
“We will do what we can from the ground, from the air, with superb intelligence. They shall have no safe haven,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli Raid Violates International Humanitarian Law
Farhan Haq, the Deputy Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres stressed that the Israeli military operation on Jenin refugee camp did not “show full respect” for international humanitarian law.
“We always want in all such operations to avoid places of high civilian concentration, and to avoid facilities like hospitals.
“Certainly, we believe that any attacks on civilian infrastructure could be violations of international humanitarian law. It’s clear that in this case over the past two days, there were accounts of civilian infrastructure and hospitals being hit.”
Farhan Haq
Moreover, a group of UN experts disclosed in a statement that Israel’s military raids at the Jenin refugee camp “may prima facie constitute a war crime.”
“Israeli forces’ operations in the occupied West Bank, killing and seriously injuring the occupied population, destroying their homes and infrastructure, and arbitrarily displacing thousands, amount to egregious violations of international law and standards on the use of force and may constitute a war crime,” the experts noted in the statement.
