There is a startled, exposed feel to what’s left of the Ramses barbershop on a major commercial artery in the Palestinian city of Jenin — even though there’s plenty of other destruction all around.
Witnesses say its curved front entrance was shorn completely off by a bulldozer during the Israeli military’s recent and extended incursion into the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
Fifty-seven-year-old Abu Ahmed, who inherited the family barbershop, is sweeping up broken mirrors and trying to salvage what he can — and not for the first time.
“The last [incursion] was two months ago,” he said. “It was partly destroyed, but I removed everything to make a new decoration for the shop.”
Ahmed said he can’t afford to fix it this time. Concrete support pillars lie in ruins on the sidewalk outside.
Jenin is used to Israeli military incursions, especially in its densely packed refugee camp, long considered a stronghold for armed Palestinian factions, and the Israeli military said the operation was aimed at thwarting Iranian-backed militant groups planning attacks on Israeli civilians.
But locals call the most recent incursion, which began Aug. 28, the most destructive in recent memory — involving hundreds of Israeli soldiers backed by drones and helicopters..
Thousands of people either fled to neighbouring villages, were locked down in their homes by fighting or ordered to leave by Israeli soldiers.
Water and electricity services remain cut, and about 20 kilometres of roadway was dug up by Israeli bulldozers, a tactic the military said was aimed at neutralizing roadside bombs but which has ripped up much of the centre of the city.
Residents begin cleanup operation
Since Israeli troops pulled out on Friday, the sound of gunfire has been replaced by the sound of a major cleanup operation as residents emerged to take stock.
Neighbouring towns have sent volunteers and equipment to help clear roads and restore downed electrical lines and broken pipelines.
“Maybe they will come and destroy it again,” said Sameh Kalalweh, the mayor of nearby Al-Judeida, leading an 18-strong group of volunteers with 10 tractors and three bulldozers. “And we will rebuild it again.”
Israel says it’s targeting terrorism networks and that the bulldozers its military used to tear up roads were unearthing explosive devices.
In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had dismantled 30 explosive devices in the area of Jenin and what it called “numerous terror infrastructure sites.”
More than 680 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank — most by the IDF and some by Israeli settlers — since war broke out in neighbouring Gaza following a Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct, 7, 2023. About 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 250 were abducted and taken to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, displaced 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes and caused heavy destruction across the besieged territory.
Infrastructure destroyed in ‘horrible way’
Out surveying the damage in Jenin over the weekend, Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti called it collective punishment. Barghouti, a physician, also heads the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, an NGO.
“What can justify destroying the infrastructure in such a horrible way?” he said. “Destroying water supplies, destroying electrical networks, destroying communication networks, even sewage systems.”
Palestinian officials put the number of dead in the latest Israeli operation in West Bank communities — including Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarm — at 39, including eight children.
After its pullout from Jenin on Friday, the IDF said that 14 militants had been “eliminated.”
One of them was 21-year old Mohamed Abo Zmero. His mother, Omm Alabed, said he joined a militant faction four years ago.
Surrounded by mourners at her home in the Jenin camp, she said she had worried but that she was proud of her son and his fellow fighters.
“All of them are fighting for God and for Palestine and not for anything else,” she said.
“To continue the occupation and oppression and expect that nobody will resist is absolutely incorrect,” said Barghouti, adding it’s a point Israel fails to grasp.
“And the big question here: If every major Western government in the world keeps repeating Israelis have the right to defend themselves, do we, the Palestinians, have the right to defend ourselves?”