Sadness, Anger in Palestine: Thousands Mourn Martyrs of Israeli Raid on Jenin

Wednesday, 05 July 2023 11:35 AM

 Thousands of people turn out in the occupied northern West Bank city of Jenin on July 5, 2023 for the funeral procession of a dozen Palestinians killed by Israeli military forces during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp two days earlier. (Photo by the Palestinian Shehab news agency)

Thousands of people have turned out for the funeral procession of a dozen Palestinians, among them four minors, killed by Israeli military forces during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

On Wednesday, the mourners converged outside Jenin’s governmental hospital as they grieved for the victims of the latest Israeli onslaught.

They shouted slogans in commemoration of the fallen Palestinians and in support of the resistance fighters, who courageously withstood the Israeli violence and forced the regime’s troops to withdraw.

The participants also strongly denounced the security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel, and vowed to continue the struggle against the occupying Tel Aviv regime until the final victory over it.

Meanwhile, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, said Palestinian resistance fighters based in Jenin gave the Israeli military a “bitter and unforgettable” lesson, and inflicted heavy losses on its troops.

He reiterated that all options are on the table in support of the residents of the northern West Bank city as well as its valiant resistance fighters.

“The coming days will reveal the magnitude of the resistance front’s strong strikes against the enemy. It will be forced to reconsider its calculations over and over again, when thinking about launching another assault on our people,” Haniyeh said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Islamic Jihad chief says Palestinians recorded a great victory in the face of the Israeli military’s incursions into the Jenin refugee camp over the last two days.

The Hamas leader stressed that resistance is the Palestinian nation’s “strategic choice to respond to the occupying regime’s aggression and liberate their land.”

“We have sent clear message to the enemy through different parties that it must stop its acts of aggression immediately,” he underlined.

Israel launched the military campaign against Jenin in the early hours of Monday morning, mobilizing upwards of 1,000 troops as means of supposedly damaging the resistance “infrastructure” in the city and the refugee camp that it hosts.

At least 12 Palestinians and one Israeli trooper died as a result of the conflict, during which a steadfast Palestinian resistance response prompted the regime to pull out its forces after less than two days.

Israeli troops finally pulled back from Jenin on Tuesday evening following a 44-hour-long incursion.