No water, electricity, schools or pharmacies for Palestinians in Jenin camp after Israeli raids

Residents struggle with shortages as violence escalates and vital services remain unavailable

Smoke rises from Jenin refugee camp on the seventh day of an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, 27 January 2025. EPA

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People in and around the occupied West Bank's Jenin refugee camp have experienced more than 60 days of violence amid a Palestinian siege and Israeli raids that have left dozens dead and wounded.

Thousands of Palestinian civilians have had no respite from the sounds of demolition, explosions, gunfire and drones hovering above with no steady access to running water or electricity, schooling, pharmacies or work.

“We have been forced to get used to it,” said Musab Sabbagh, who left the camp the day Israeli special forces began raids on the areas on January 21.

He said the camp and surrounding areas are scraping by as facilities close and supplies run thin after weeks of attack and siege. His mother has been cut off from vital medication she needs for neuropathic pain.

“The pharmacies have closed – all the shops that provide us with basic supplies like flour, oil or meat have closed. Children haven't gone to school in over a month. We have no water or electricity,” Mr Sabbagh said.

For now, Mr Sabbagh said, people are relying on bottled water for their needs. Daily necessities like having a shower are no longer an option with no access to running water and no clear end to the continuing violence.

Mr Sabbagh joined his family, who had been staying with relatives outside the camp, in nearby Jenin city. The family left after the death of his sister, Shatha, during a Palestinian Authority siege last month, which it said was designed to root out “outlaws”.

The family blames Palestinian security forces for Shatha's death – a claim that the PA has denied.

Palestinian journalist Shatha Al Sabbagh whose family claims was shot and killed by Palestinian security forces in Jenin refugee camp. Photo: Al Sabbagh family

“I was helping some of the older people who couldn't leave during the Palestinian raid leave the camp. But I was caught up when the Israeli special forces entered and came really close to our neighbourhood – I had to leave,” he told The National from a relative's home in nearby Jenin city.

Jenin camp is no stranger to Israeli raids which often see Israeli snipers mount rooftops, armoured vehicles destroy roads and block ambulances from reaching the wounded.

But the latest Israeli offensive came just days after the Palestinian security forces had pulled out of the camp after a weeks-long offensive against militants and a fragile ceasefire in Gaza came into effect after nearly 500 days of war.

The ceasefire agreement was opposed by key figures in the Israeli government like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who threatened to resign, seeing the deal as a form of surrender.

“The timing of the operation is significant … Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to make a compromise to make Smotrich stay in government by telling him that we'll restore security in what they call Judea and Samaria [the West Bank],” said Palestinian political analyst Khalil Al Sayegh.

Indeed, Israel dubbed its military operation in Jenin the “Iron Wall” after founder of Zionist Revisionism Ze'ev Jabotinsky's essay that argues for the creation of such a wall separating Israelis from the Palestinians.

Jenin camp has been a hotbed of militant activity for groups like the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Jenin Brigades who have been known to carry out attacks across the West Bank against Israeli soldiers, settlers and civilians.

“The Israeli move came four days after the Palestinian Authority had made an agreement with armed groups inside the camp,” Mr Al Sayegh said. The PA said that it was cracking down on “outlaws” in Jenin to prevent giving Israel the pretext to enter the camp. But it happened anyway.

The exact details of the agreement between the PA and armed groups have not been released, but statements from the two sides indicated that the armed groups would not allow anyone carrying a weapon inside the camp if they had a criminal background.

In exchange, the PA would withdraw its troops, vehicles and snipers from inside the camp, thus ending the siege. But this was not enough.

“Israel saw this as a failure, because they want to see the armed groups disarmed in Jenin,” Mr Al Sayegh said.

“We were being targeted by the Israelis and the Palestinians at some point,” one Jenin resident told The National.

Still, the fear that accompanies an Israeli raid is much more serious than what was felt during the Palestinian siege, Mr Sabbagh said.

“Even the children have been more afraid in the past eight days than they had been during the Palestinian siege,” he said.