August 22, 2024
Israel launched
an airstrike on the refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem on
22 August, coinciding with an Israeli military raid in the camp.
“Israeli
occupation forces bombed a house in Tulkarm refugee camp, during the ongoing
assault on the camp,” Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Imad Shraim,
Muawiya Ahmad, and Wassim Anbar were the three who were killed in the bombing,
according to WAFA.
The Tulkarem
branch of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement’s Quds Brigades
confronted Israeli troops invading the camp on 22 August.
“Our fighters
are engaged in fierce clashes with the occupation forces on various combat
fronts and are detonating a number of explosive devices in infantry forces and
military vehicles, causing direct hits. Our fight continues and our weapons are
drawn in all arenas,” the Tulkarem Brigade said in a statement on Thursday
morning.
Israeli forces
stormed Tulkarem camp during the early hours of 22 August and began bulldozing
infrastructure.
“The
neighborhoods of Hamam, Al-Madaris, Qaqun, Al-Muqata'a, Al-Balawneh,
Al-Murabba'a, and Al-Akasha were deliberately vandalized, with public and
private property being destroyed, including homes and shops along the service
road in the center of the camp,” WAFA said.
The Tulkarem
Brigade confronted the troops early on Thursday upon the onset of the Israeli
raid, which began around 1:00 AM.
Other groups,
including the Tulkarem branches of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades and the Al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades, took part in clashes against the Israeli army.
“Our fighters
are engaged in fierce clashes with the Zionist enemy forces that have
penetrated the vicinity of Tulkarm camp, using machine guns and explosive
devices,” the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade said as Israeli forces were storming the
camp.
Video footage on
social media shows an Israeli army bulldozer set ablaze in Tulkarem camp.
Resistance in
the occupied West Bank has surged to new heights in the last two years.
Palestinian resistance operations against Israelis have witnessed a sharp rise,
and resistance factions across the territory continue to rise in prominence.
There has also
been a massive spike in army and settler violence against Palestinians in the
occupied West Bank since 7 October.
More than 600
Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war.
Hamas
and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement released a joint statement on
22 August, confirming that the resistance will reject any agreement that does
not include an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
The
joint statement was issued following a meeting between PIJ Secretary-General
Ziad Nakhala and Hamas Shura Council head Mohammad Darwish in Qatar’s capital,
Doha.
The
statement stressed the “necessity of stopping the aggression and war to which
the Palestinian people are being subjected and punishing the leaders of the
occupation for the crimes they are committing against humanity.”
“The
position of the resistance and the Palestinian people on achieving any
agreement is a comprehensive cessation of aggression, a complete withdrawal
from the Strip, the start of reconstruction, and the end of the siege with a
serious exchange deal,” the joint statement added.
It
also held “the occupation leaders responsible for aborting the efforts
undertaken by the mediators through their insistence on continuing the
aggression and denying what was done in previous stages, especially the
proposal approved by the movement [Hamas] on 2 July.”
Additionally,
the Hamas and PIJ statement renewed the call for the immediate delivery of
sufficient amounts of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, warning of the
“consequences of the continued collective punishment” by Israel.
The
statement comes as a new round of ceasefire talks – unattended by Hamas – are
expected to kick off in the coming days.
The
meetings were initially scheduled for Wednesday in the Egyptian capital but
were delayed to an unspecified date.
“The
high-level Cairo meeting regarding the negotiations will be held on Saturday or
Sunday. The negotiating team is working around the clock to bridge the gap,
including the Philadelphi file with Egypt,” an Israeli official told Yedioth
Ahronoth on Thursday.
Hamas
has rejected a new US-backed proposal – which Washington says Israel has agreed
to – for failing to address the group’s demands for a permanent ceasefire,
withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and several other issues.
It
is unclear precisely what is in the new proposal. A Hamas official told
Al-Sharq on 20 August that the proposal does not include an Israeli withdrawal
from the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, as Hamas’ terms
stipulate.
Netanyahu
himself confirmed on 20 August that Israel would refuse any withdrawal from the
Gaza–Egypt border.
The
source also said the proposal demands a screening mechanism to inspect
displaced Gazans who would return to the northern strip as part of an agreement
– one of the many Israeli conditions complicating recent negotiations.
It
also does not guarantee a permanent ceasefire. The US proposal states that “a
permanent ceasefire will be discussed in the second phase within a specific
limit, and if Hamas does not agree to the Israeli demands, the army will return
to the war and carry out its military operations,” according to the source.
The former ombudsman of the Israeli
army, reserve General Yitzhak Brik, says his country “faces collapse in less
than a year” if the war against the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and the
Lebanese resistance in the north continues at its current pace.
In an opinion column published by
Haaretz on 21 August, Brik claims Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has begun to
“sober up,” pointing to Gallant’s recent comments in which he called Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promises of “total victory” in Gaza “gibberish.”
“[Gallant] has started to understand
that if a regional war breaks out due to failure to reach a [ceasefire deal],
Israel will be in danger,” Brik says, adding that “Gallant already understands
that the war has lost its purpose. We are sinking into the mud, losing fighters
who are killed and wounded, with no chance of achieving the main goal.”
“Indeed, the country is galloping to
depreciation. If the war of attrition against Hamas and Hezbollah continues,
Israel will collapse in no more than a year,” the former army commander
highlights.
Brik goes on to list the many
threats facing Israel 10 months into its campaign of genocide in Gaza,
including intensifying attacks inside its territory, a manpower crisis in the
army due to heavy losses, a crumbling economy made worse by global calls to
boycott the country, possible embargoes on arms shipments, and the “loss of
social resilience and hatred between the parts of the population, which can
ignite and cause it to crash from within.”
“All roads of political and military
rank lead Israel to the slope … Israel has entered an existential spin, and it
may soon reach a point of return,” Brik concludes.
His stark warning comes as political
sources revealed to Israeli media on Thursday that Netanyahu “did not change
his positions” on the terms for a Gaza ceasefire deal after speaking with US
President Joe Biden the night before.
Ceasefire negotiations are set to
resume in the Egyptian capital in the coming days without the presence of
Hamas, as the Palestinian group has rejected a new US-backed proposal and has
remained steadfast in demanding Israel adhere to the terms of an earlier
proposal it agreed to on 2 July, saying the one-sided talks give Israel “more
time to perpetuate the war of genocide against our people.”
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft
carrier entered West Asian waters on 21 August, accompanied by Destroyer
Squadron 21 and Carrier Air Wing 9, according to the US Central Command
(CENTCOM).
Set to join the so-called Operation
Prosperity Guardian (OPG), the Abraham Lincoln will replace the USS Theodore
Roosevelt carrier strike group, which has been deployed to the Red Sea since
June. The Roosevelt, in turn, replaced the USS Eisenhower, which also failed to
make a dent in Yemen's pro-Palestine operations.
The Roosevelt is expected to stay in
the region for a short period before its scheduled return to US shores, giving
Washington two Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in West Asia.
“The department’s recent adjustment
to the US military posture in the region have enabled us to bolster US force
protection, increase support for the defense of Israel and to ensure the United
States is prepared to respond to various contingencies,” Pentagon Press
Secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday.
“In addition to being ready for now,
we’re going to be ready for that wide variety of contingencies of what may
come. To do that, you have to have capability and you have to have capacity.
And so, that’s exactly what we’ve done and that’s exactly what we’d be prepared
to do going ahead into the future,” he added.
The nuclear-powered USS Georgia
submarine is also en route to West Asia to join thousands of US troops already
present in the region. In recent weeks, the Pentagon has shifted destroyers
from the Gulf of Oman to the Red Sea and deployed additional fighter jets,
ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers, and destroyers to Europe and West
Asia.
Washington's heavy militarization of
the region comes as Israel awaits retaliation for their twin bombing of Beirut
and Tehran late last month, which killed top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and
Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh.
The Israeli army
revealed on 21 August that only about 70 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men reported to
military induction centers since Tel Aviv issued the first batch of draft
orders to the Haredi sector last month in a bid to overcome its manpower woes.
“Warning that
those who repeatedly ignore invitations could face arrest, the IDF said that
those who did not report on Wednesday as expected will be called again at a
future date,” the Times of Israel reported.
The army added
that only seven Haredi men showed up at induction centers on Wednesday.
Draft orders
began going out last month after the High Court of Justice ruled that
ultra-Orthodox men eligible for service must be drafted into the military.
Previously, the Haredim avoided conscription by enrolling in yeshivas and
obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reached the age of
military exemption.
Haaretz
previously reported that 6,000 ultra-Orthodox men are expected to receive draft
notices. The army previously said it could draft 3,000 out of 67,000 eligible
Haredim (the equivalent of five military divisions).
In response to
the draft orders, the Haredi community has held several protests, saying they
would rather “die before enlisting.” On Wednesday, around 100 Haredim clashed
with Israeli police in occupied Jerusalem.
Protesters were
seen blocking a street near a military base and clashing with police officers
who tried to disperse them. In one scene, one of the protesters was heard
calling the police “Nazis.”
In the days
after the High Court ruling, Rabbi Dov Lando, leader of the Lithuanian
ultra-Orthodox community in Israel, lashed out at the Israeli judicial system
after it eliminated the military exemption for the ultra-Orthodox, saying that
the courts had “declared war against the world of Torah.”
The attempt to
draft thousands of Haredim into service comes as the Israeli army faces a
severe manpower crisis after 10 months of its genocidal war on Gaza. Earlier
this week, the army announced plans to recall 15,000 Israelis up to age 35 who
had previously completed mandatory military service starting at age 18.
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