AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We return now to the occupied West Bank, where Israeli soldiers stormed the city of Tulkarm just after midnight today in new raids that come just days after Israeli forces withdrew from Tulkarm and Jenin. Israeli troops also raided the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank earlier today, and in Abu Shukheidim, near Ramallah, Al Jazeera reports Israeli forces were seen raiding homes.

On Friday, Israeli forces temporarily retreated from Jenin, Tulkarm and other areas in the occupied West Bank after laying siege to the cities for 10 days, killing dozens of Palestinians, including children and elders, and leaving a trail of destruction. Simultaneous raids also took place across Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah in the largest Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank in two decades, with hundreds of troops backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones.

During the raids, Israeli soldiers fired live rounds at Palestinian journalists documenting the attacks, injuring at least four of them in the town of Kafr Dan. Footage also surfaced of Israeli forces in an armored tank rolling over the dead body of an 82-year-old Palestinian man in Jenin who was killed Friday by Israeli soldiers and denied medical attention.

Meanwhile, Israeli settlers have continued their attacks in the West Bank. In Qaryut, near Nablus, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl was killed by Israeli gunfire as settlers attacked the village. Bana Laboum was hit by a bullet Friday while she was in her bedroom. Her mother described the Israeli attack ahead of her daughter’s burial.

IMAN LEBWAM: [translated] She was in her room along with her sisters. She was afraid, in fear, and suddenly a bullet got in through the window and hit her while she was on her bed. This is what happened. There were scuffles outside with the youth, but we were surprised that a bullet came through the window and onto her.

AMY GOODMAN: Over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October, nearly 150 of them children, most of them during near-daily raids by the Israeli military. That’s added on to the more than 40,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza, and that figure is expected to be much higher, 16,000 of them children.

We go now to Ramallah, where we’re joined by Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist. Her recent piece for +972 Magazine is titled “Inside the brutal siege of Jenin.”

Mariam, welcome back to Democracy Now! Explain what has happened there in Jenin.

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Thank you for having me, Amy.

So, what we have seen in Jenin specifically, but generally in the northern areas of the West Bank, is an escalated attack and an offensive under the title of Operation Summer Camps by the Israeli military. And what we have seen is the Israeli military basically greenlighting the use of lethal force excessively and sporadically, which is why we’re hearing news of young children being shot by bullets, as well as journalists being sniped by Israeli snipers.

And what the Israeli military did was essentially bring in D9 Caterpillar bulldozers within the city of Jenin, likewise in Tulkarm within the city, and then moving deeper towards the camp, and where they bulldozed nearly — the overwhelming majority of the civilian infrastructure, that includes water pipe, that includes electric wiring, that includes the sewage system. And the Israeli military basically besieged the entire city.

Entry and exit was dangerous and risky, because you can get shot, even as press. Medical personnel, as well as ambulances, were obstructed from moving patients, not simply banning injured persons from the camp throughout the nine-day siege, but patients from Jenin city were unable to reach the only governmental hospital in Jenin that is adjacent to the camp and was basically placed under siege by the Israeli military.

So, what we saw was an intensification and a brutal offensive. Again, this is an offensive by the Israeli military under the — and I quote — it’s a “preemptive strike against Palestinian terrorists.” But what I have seen on the ground is it was targeting essentially civilians mostly, and there was a very clear attempt to conceal what is happening from media, and that means from global audiences.

AMY GOODMAN: Again, you said they call this Operation Summer Camps?

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Yes. So, the Israeli military has called this Operation Summer Camps. It was officially declared between August 27th or 28th of last month. And the Israeli military claims that they are basically targeting refugee camps. That’s why “summer camps.” But again, what we have seen is they’re targeting civilians. And they said the refugee camps, because that’s primarily where Palestinian combatants are operating from. Again, this is the Israeli military going into these areas and attacking these areas, under the statement of “this is a preemptive strike against terrorism.” But what we have seen is a focus on the civilian infrastructure and near destruction of the refugee camps, which are Area A and, under the Oslo Accords, outside the jurisdiction of the Israeli military or government.

AMY GOODMAN: So, can you describe what Jenin was like and the level of destruction left behind? Palestinians in the camp describe being forced out of their homes by gunpoint.

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Yeah. So, Jenin has been under constant attack by the Israeli military for the past two years specifically, but generally, across time, in Palestine. But we have seen an intensification. So, every other month, the Israeli military would actually invade Jenin refugee camp and carry out lethal attacks against its community.

But this time what we have seen is that the brutality is truly unprecedented. The Israeli military, not just in the camp, but even on the outskirts, went into civilian buildings and, at gunpoint, forced families out of their homes to places unknown, to a fate unknown. They didn’t know where they will sleep, how long they will be away from their houses. And when they returned on Friday to their homes after the Israeli withdrawal, what I saw was complete destruction of their homes and their apartments. The furniture was ruined. Mattresses, they had dung on them. There were attack dogs that were put in these homes. The refrigerators would be destroyed. There would be Hebrew graffiti on the walls.

And inside the camp, it’s truly very difficult to capture it in words. I just saw families cleaning up the rubble, cleaning up the trash left behind by the Israeli military. The walls are full of bullets. It’s just rubble all over the ground. It’s so difficult to walk. Cars can’t move within the camp. And the families, you know, when I would ask them, “Are you going to rebuild? What are you going to do now?” they would respond with, “Why would we rebuild now, if the Israeli army is only going to come for another invasion, as we have seen happen in Tulkarm last night?” Again, after withdrawal from Tulkarm refugee camp, the Israeli military just kept going back.

So, people are frightened. They feel abandoned. They have zero protection. And again, in an impoverished area to rebuild, which is going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild the infrastructure, it’s truly a cost and a toll, and clearly, it is put to cripple Palestinian civil society.

AMY GOODMAN: Mariam, can you explain who is the Jenin Brigade? What’s their role in Jenin versus the security forces affiliated with the Palestinian Authority?

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: Right. So, in Jenin refugee camp, to what the military, Israeli military, dubs as the “wasps’ nest,” we have seen a rise of Palestinian armed youth groups, starting within 2021 until today. And these are small battalions. These are youth that grew up in the camp. Many of them have been imprisoned by Israel under administrative detention, meaning no trial, no charge, only torture. And they decided to take up arms, essentially, because they found that across the last decade, any efforts of Palestinians, whether it is in negotiations or whether it is in unarmed and nonviolent confrontation, has only allowed Israel to continue its expansion of settlements on Palestinian lands and continue its escalation of violence on Palestinians. So they see themselves as the force that is trying to push back. Even though they’re limited in resources, they are protecting their homes.

And please remember that these are the refugees that, essentially, Israel and its militia, its Zionist militias, had kicked out of their original homes in 1948 that are located within heartland Palestine, or what is now Israel. The difference between them and the Palestinian Authority is that the Palestinian Authority, which has been given the role of an administrative role under the Oslo Accord —

AMY GOODMAN: We just have 15 seconds.

MARIAM BARGHOUTI: — has actually done nothing, has done nothing to protect Palestinians, and actually, during the siege, remained within the headquarters, letting Palestinian families just being bombed constantly throughout the siege.

AMY GOODMAN: Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian writer and journalist, we’ll link to your piece for +972 Magazine, “Inside the brutal siege of Jenin.” Part 2 online at democracynow.org, when we ask her what it’s like to be a journalist reporting on Jenin.