Israel killed 20 Palestinians in an airstrike on Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern West Bank late on Thursday, October 3, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported. Several children and an entire family were among the dead, as the strike targeted a three-floor residential building in the center of the camp.
The strike, conducted with an Israeli fighter jet using a heavy missile, was the first of its kind in over 20 years. The Israeli army and intelligence said in a joint statement that the strike targeted Zahi Oufi, described as a local “Hamas commander” who was killed in the strike. Residents in Tulkarem told Mondoweiss that the targeted location was a local cafe full of civilians, where Oufi was at the time. The cafe was on the ground floor of a residential building that housed several civilian apartments in the overcrowded refugee camp.
“I was in the camp just half an hour before the strike, playing billiards with some young men from the camp,” a resident of the camp who preferred to remain unnamed told Mondoweiss. “It was about 100 meters away from the place that was struck.”
The camp resident detailed the events leading up to the strike and how it subsequently unfolded. “One of the guys who was playing with me was a teenager named Arkan Bilal. He left to buy something and never came back,” he explained. “I left to go visit my wife’s family in the city [of Tulkarem], and on my way, I walked by the [targeted] cafe and saw several men, including elderly men sitting inside as usual, with children playing in the street just in front of it. Then I saw Anwar Nuseimi, who lives in Jericho and was visiting his parents in Tulkarem for a few days, and he waved hello to me.”
“As I left the camp, I saw a fighter jet flying very high over the city,” he continued. “About ten minutes after leaving the camp, a very loud explosion could be heard all over the city. A friend told me that there was a strike in the camp.”
“I went back to the camp, and the cafe had been completely destroyed, but the building was still standing, although partially destroyed — the bomb had pierced two floors before exploding in the cafe,” he continued to explain. “There were hundreds of people trying to pull bodies and survivors from the rubble and looking for their loved ones.”
Emptying the Camps
The eyewitness continued to describe the aftermath, seeing a body hanging from electricity cables and human bodies disfigured and “shredded into pieces.”
“They were completely unrecognizable,” he detailed. “Then the names of the victims began to be identified; one of them was Arkan, the boy I was playing billiards with less than an hour ago. Another was Anwar, who was on his way to buy cigarettes from the store right in front of the cafe when I saw him. Another was Majdi Salem, a child who was playing in front of the cafe, and six were members of the Abu Zahra family — a father, mother, two children ages 5 and 7, and both grandparents, all of them killed in their house on the second floor.”
“We’ve been living through the occupation’s raids for more than a year now, but this was different,” he clarified. “We have become used to bulldozers breaking into the camp and destroying streets and buildings. We’ve even grown used to the sound of drones. But we haven’t seen a bombing from a fighter jet since the Second Intifada.”
“People in Tulkarem are still in shock,” he remarked.
Tulkarem has been a main target of Israeli forces’ raids since October 7. The city, its surrounding villages, and its two adjacent camps have lost 114 people to Israeli fire since January in Israel’s attempt to stifle the spread of armed resistance in the northern West Bank. Both Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps have been the central target of Israeli military violence, leading to the displacement of several families from their homes.
In August, the Israeli army launched “Operation Summer Camps,” a widescale military campaign against the armed resistance in the northern West Bank concentrated in the cities of Tulkarem, Tubas, and Jenin.
“Since August, Israeli forces have arrested hundreds of people and conducted field interrogations with them,” Mohammad Abu Eid, a resident of Tulkarem city, told Mondoweiss. “Those who were released were told to leave the camp until the end of the raid.”
“Upon returning to the camps, many of these people discovered that their homes were damaged,” he said. “And they had to rent apartments in the city with the help of UNRWA, the Palestinian Authority, and other NGOs.”
Abu Eid is a member of the Jadayel Association, a local organization that distributes humanitarian aid to the camp’s residents. “It seems that the occupation is trying to empty the camps, but most people chose to stay and repair their homes,” he explained. “We and other associations try to help them with food packages and blankets, but it’s not enough. We need more help.”
Following the massacre in Tulkarem refugee camp, the Palestinian Authority called upon the international community and humanitarian organizations to “urgently intervene” to prevent the crimes of the occupation. The UN Human Rights Office also condemned the massacre, calling it a clear example of Israel’s “systematic resort to lethal force in the West Bank that is frequently unnecessary, disproportionate, and therefore unlawful.”
Thursday’s massacre raises the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7 to 742. These include 163 children, 14 women, and 11 elderly. At least 5,750 have been wounded, with over 10,000 arrested. Israel has also destroyed 1,363 Palestinian properties in the West Bank during the same period, leaving 4,571 Palestinians homeless.