[Updated at 3:45 pm on Dec. 31, 2023]
A large army force attacked the city of Tulkarem and its two refugee camps for a period of hours ten hours before withdrawing.
An armed Israeli drone targeted two sites with missiles in the “Al-Damj” neighborhood and another site near the entrance to the “Al-Manshiya” neighborhood in the Nur Shams camp, causing two young men to be injured with missile shrapnel.
Bulldozers destroyed streets, infrastructure, and privately-owned vehicles in the Nur Shams camp.
Shortly afterwards, another drone strike targeted the Schools neighborhood in the Tulkarem refugee camp without causing injuries.
Another drone strike targeted the Al-Ghanem neighborhood in the Tulkarem camp, leading to two injuries, including one described as serious.
According to medical sources at the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital, the bombing in the Al-Ghanem neighborhood caused the injury of two young men with missile fragments.
One of young men sustained a serious injury to the abdomen, while another suffered a missile shrapnel injury to his foot.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) in Tulkarem, seven young men, many of whom are relatives of slain Palestinian men from the recent military assaults on the two camps.
The abductees were identified as Ahmed Muhammad Alyan, Adnan Hussein Fahmawi, Wael Hussein Fahmawi, Samer Hussein Fahmawi, Rashad Rad Haj Mahmoud, Mahmoud Rashad Warad, and Maher Ahmed Shteiwi.
[First published at 7:00 am on Dec. 31, 2023]
Late Saturday night, Israeli drones bombed two sites and injured two Palestinians in the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem city in the northwestern part of the West Bank.
Before midnight on Saturday, Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Tulkarem and the Nur Shams refugee camp to the east.
Media sources said that several military vehicles, including a bulldozer and a front end loader stormed the city from its western axis, travelling through the city to the Nur Shams camp, and besieged the camp.
The army positioned sharpshooters on the rooftops of high-rise buildings and citizens’ homes near the camp after breaking their doors down, vandalizing them, detaining the owners, and subjecting them to interrogation.
Soldiers were deployed near the Martyr Thabet Thabet Government Hospital, the Al-Isra Specialized Hospital, and opened fire with live rounds at citizens near the Al-Alimi roundabout in the city.
Palestinians confronted the attacking army in the Nur Shams camp, while reconnaissance drones flew overhead.
An armed drone fired a missile targeting the Al-Damj neighborhood in the center of the camp, while the army fired light bombs in the sky over the city and its camps.
Occupation bulldozers demolished part of the house of Nabil Emara in the Al-Damj neighborhood, razed streets, infrastructure, public facilities, and citizens’ property, in the Al-Mahjar and Al-Manshiya neighborhoods, and in the vicinity of the camp’s cemetery.
Israeli forces sent additional military reinforcements to the camp, deployed foot patrols in the camp, amid heavy gunfire.
The Al-Isra Specialized Hospital was besieged, sharpshooters were positioned in the vicinity, and the movement of ambulances was obstructed at the entrance to the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital.
Before dawn Sunday, a second missile was fired from a drone in the Al-Ghanem neighborhood.
Medical sources with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that their ambulance crews treated two injuries from missile fragments, one being seriously injured in the pelvis the other in the foot.
Israeli soldiers obstructed the work of ambulances causing them to be unable to transfer the young men to hospital.
Soldiers stormed the Al-Mahjar neighborhood and invaded dozens of homes in the camp.
Occupation vehicles were stationed at the entrance to the Tulkarem refugee camp in the city, fired live rounds at citizens, and then stormed the Shweika suburb northeast of the city and broke into citizens’ homes.
Later, soldiers invaded the homes of Muhammad Saeed Salah from the Shweika suburb, Hamza Ibrahim Fathi Adwan, and Muhammad Ahmed Abdel Latif Farkh from the town of Far’un, south of the city, before abducting them.
