In Jenin, at least 11 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes and raids in just over a week, officials say. The heightened pace of violence has frightened residents.
The mosque is unrecognizable. The stairway to the upper floor, now lacking a wall to support it, is leaning strangely. Pillars holding up the ceiling are bowing. Rubble is piled up outside. And through the holes in the floor, a man peers into the basement where Israeli security forces say Palestinian militants were storing weapons.
The Israeli airstrike that destroyed the Al-Ansar Mosque in Jenin on Oct. 22 was an unusual occurrence for the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces usually favor ground raids instead. At least two Palestinians were killed, officials in Jenin say.
In the days since, Israeli security forces have mounted at least three raids on Jenin, all of them deadly. In total, at least 11 Palestinians have been killed in Jenin in just over a week, Palestinian officials say.
Beyond Jenin, across the West Bank, Palestinians say that Israel has tightened restrictions and Israel’s security forces have stepped up operations since the Gaza-based militant group Hamas launched attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people.
Israel says it is targeting militants and that its actions are necessary to counter what it calls terrorism.
Most of Israel’s fighting has focused on the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is based. Israel’s military has killed more than 8,000 and injured more than 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza in the last three weeks, health officials in Gaza say.
While Israeli raids are not new to Palestinians in the West Bank, they have stepped up since Oct. 7. From the start of 2023 through Oct. 6, 197 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, according to an Associated Press tally. But since the start of the war, Israeli security forces have killed more than 100 Palestinians in the West Bank, Palestinian officials say, and 1,500 more have been arrested.A family next door to the mosque
For decades, Jenin and its densely populated refugee camp have been a place where Palestinian militants have been active. Over the years, militants from Jenin have carried out suicide bomb attacks and armed assaults on Israeli settlers.
The mosque airstrike came after midnight on Oct. 22. When it hit, Noor Damaj was outside drinking tea with relatives in an unfinished apartment above his uncle’s home, next door to the mosque.
«I wanted to go down and see what had happened to my family. I could not even get in,» Damaj says. «There was so much dust and gunpowder we could barely see.
