Mariam Barghouti reports:

The sounds of explosions, bulldozers, military drones and heavy gunfire are a constant in Jenin, a Palestinian city in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which has been under full military lockdown for nearly 10 days as Israel carries out a military offensive.

“The siege on the camp first began outside, on the edges of the camp,” Shatha Sabbagh, 21, told New Lines, referring to the refugee camp built in the city in 1953 that is home to thousands of residents. Sabbagh had been besieged in the camp for four days, until the Israeli military entered the home where she was staying with her mother and sister. They were escorted out of the camp at gunpoint, trailed by an Israeli military jeep.

According to Sabbagh, the Israeli army first cut off electricity and communications from Jenin before invading deeper into the refugee camp. In the city, civilians were forced to remain indoors for the entire duration of the siege. “We’ve been in our homes for days, unable to leave,” Ahmad Shreim, 30, told New Lines as he sat with other men from his community near a gas station at the edge of Jenin city. Shreim had been trapped as Israeli snipers stationed themselves on the main streets of Jenin, shooting at cars, including those of journalists.

“The Israeli military fired live ammunition randomly and excessively at anything that moved, whether human or animal, everything would get shot,” said Sabbagh, who is now displaced on the outskirts of the city. [Continue reading…]