The elusive commander of the Nour Shams brigade, Mohammad Jaber, known as “Abou Shuja”, was killed on the night of Wednesday 28 to Thursday 29 August, during an exchange of fire in a mosque, during a large-scale operation carried out by the Israeli army in the north of the West Bank. Based in the refugee camp, where Palestinians expelled from their land in 1948 live, adjacent to the city of Tulkarem, Abu Shuja was at the head of a composite armed unit. It brings together fighters of various tendencies and, although officially affiliated with Islamic Jihad, it counts among its elements members of Hamas as well as other Palestinian groups and factions, including some close to Fatah. Reported dead several times, Abou Shuja had resurfaced, escaping strikes and fighting in the alleys of Nour Shams.
Since Tuesday, 27 August, three towns in the north of the occupied region have been attacked as part of a vast joint operation bringing together troops from several Israeli brigades, members of special units operating clandestinely and elements of the border police, with air reinforcements. Even given the frequency and intensity of operations against the strongholds of Palestinian armed groups for almost eleven months in this area, this is an unusual scale. The Jenin refugee camp, two others in Tulkarem, including Nour Shams, to the west, not far from the separation barrier that closes access to Israel’s central plain, and, to the east, Al-Faraa, near Tubas, towards the Jordan Valley, were attacked.
Israel has used combat helicopters, drones, armoured vehicles and the usual giant bulldozers to tear up roads in search of explosive devices (several have been activated in the last few hours) and also devastate infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage). A large number of ground forces, several hundred men, from several brigades, surrounded the camps. In Jenin, considered the most important regional stronghold of the armed groups, the operation ended on Thursday morning. “The fighters were not in the camp”According to a source close to its leaders, armed elements are also dispersed in the surrounding towns, from where they sometimes organize attack actions against the Israeli army, which is often caught in the rear when it surrounds the Jenin camp.
You have 65.5% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
