“We used to be entertained by their laughter during the long hours of invasion.” 

This is what the neighbors told Saida Fahmawi, the mother of Fares, who was killed alongside five others in an Israeli airstrike targeting them while they were in front of their homes in the Al-Mahjar neighborhood in the Nur Shams refugee camp east of Tulkarm.

Saida, a mother of three boys and a girl, told Daraj that Fares was the third in line among her children and used to work in a small café in the camp. Due to the nature of his work, he usually returned home late. When news came that the Israeli army was sending reinforcements to the camp, he returned home.

The Fahmawi family lives in the Al-Mahjar neighborhood, and their house is away from the main street, where the neighborhood youths gather and stay up in front of the house. When the occupation forces raid Tulkarm, no one can sleep.

The youths gathered and began to monitor and watch: the occupation forces were not close to their location, but a drone was flying at low altitude. Saida tried to warn her sons, Saif and Fares, and the other youths, saying: “I looked out of the window and told them to be careful of the drone.” 

Fares replied to her warnings, saying: “Don’t worry, Mom, what do they want from us?” She responded, “Don’t trust them, they are treacherous.”

The clock passed two in the morning, and the raid continued. When Saida decided to get some rest, a massive explosion rocked the place, and the house’s windows shattered. When she realized what had happened, she hurried outside to check on her children, only to find her eldest son Saif injured on the stairs of the house, along with several others injured in the street. She confirmed that Saif was alive and called for help, then went to search for Fares, only to find that the bombing had thrown his body away, and he was killed along with his cousin Ahmed and four others.

Afterward, the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital announced the arrival of six casualties and several wounded victims due to an Israeli airstrike. This was announced an hour after which the occupation obstructed the arrival of ambulances transporting the injured to the hospital. The Red Crescent stated that after 65 minutes of detention, the occupation forces released an ambulance carrying three serious injuries from the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarm, bringing the number of injuries up to four.

The head of the doctors’ union in Tulkarm, Radwan Bleible, pointed out that an Israeli soldier stabbed one of the wounded inside the ambulance, indicating that the injured were assaulted by rifle butts, kicks, punches, and death threats from the soldiers, and not allowing them to reach the hospital.

A Disrupted Life

Nihaya Al-Jundi, a member of the Popular Committee in the Nur Shams camp, told Daraj that the camp has been living in a terrifying state since October 7, as a result of repeated raids, home demolitions, harassment of its residents, and the complete destruction of inside streets. 

“There is no paved street in Nur Shams, and with each Israeli raid, the streets are torn apart again, and we try to repair the damage. Sewage networks have also been destroyed, and we frequently lose internet connection. Even water is cut off for long periods, sometimes reaching a week or more in the camp,” she added

Al-Jundi indicated that some families residing in the Nur Shams camp, which now has a population of 14,000, the second-largest camp in Tulkarm, have been forced to leave and search for safer places away from Israeli targeting.

“In the latest raid on the camp, not a single house was spared from the incursion. They burned houses and displaced their residents. However, with the help of associations and institutions, we managed to find temporary housing for them.” She added that some citizens go to their relatives’ homes outside the camp to sleep at night and return in the morning.

Imad Abu Dgheish, a shop owner in the Nur Shams camp, told Daraj that he was forced to close his shop and leave it. He is now unemployed after the Israeli occupation forces destroyed his shop twice since the outbreak of the war on Gaza. The first time, the shop was destroyed with the Israeli army blowing up its façade completely. Abu Dgheish rebuilt it from scratch in a process that took about two months, incurring losses amounting to 100 shekels. However, when the occupation destroyed it for the second time, Abu Dgheish decided to leave his store as it was since he could not afford the cost of repairing it without guarantees against the recurrence of what happened in the previous two times.

Along those lines, Israeli occupation forces have completely destroyed 37 buildings and partially damaged 1010 buildings, in addition to demolishing the Al-Nadi building and the Al-Munshiyya hall, and damaging 58 commercial facilities. The estimated cost of street damage amounted to 2,373,500 shekels.

A report by the Palestinian Information Center, Ma’ata, shows continued violations, attacks, and crimes by the Israeli occupation and settlers in the West Bank. During last January, 5,457 violations were recorded.

During that same month, the occupation forces carried out several assassination operations using special forces and drones in Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarm, killing 7 civilians, including 4 siblings, in an Israeli airstrike at the southern entrance of Jenin.

Two Israeli drones also targeted vehicles in Nablus and Tulkarm, resulting in 9 deaths and dozens of injuries.

Nur Shams Camp

Nur Shams Camp was established in 1952 with an area of about 226 dunums, rented by UNRWA from the Jordanian government. It is located east of Tulkarm city and is 3 km away from its center, on the main road connecting the cities of Nablus and Tulkarm.

Before 1952, refugees lived in tents in the Jneid Valley near Janzur until a snowstorm destroyed their tents in 1950.

After that, the residents resorted to areas surrounding the Shaar valley, including the old British prison in Nur Shams, where UNRWA began building houses in 1956.

The camp was named after the Nur Shams prison, which the British used during their occupation of Palestine since1919 to imprison those sentenced to death or life imprisonment. It is likely that the prison derived its name from its exposed location to the sun’s rays throughout the day.

The refugees’ origins in the camp date back to villages surrounding Haifa, including Al-Kafrayn, Qannir, Sabbarin, Umm al-Zinat, Ajzam, Ein Ghazal, Aaraara, Al-Ghbeiya, Umm al-Shuf, Lajjun, Al-Shqeirat, and Umm al-Fahm.