The roads looked like Gaza. Houses reduced to rubble, walls cut by bullet holes, roads torn by Bulldozer. The neighborhood after the neighborhood was deserted.
But this was not Gaza, a territory devastated by the war between Israel and the Hamas militant group, where tens of thousands have been killed and hunger chases the population. It was occupied, another Palestinian territory in which the Israeli army unexpected control in the wider repression of the militancy there in a generation.
The outlines of the new offensive were taking place during a recent visit of the New York Times journalists in the city of Jenin, among the densely populated neighborhoods that have been eliminated since an operation started in January. In one of those areas, over 10,000 people lived until recently. Now, it is empty: its roads blocked by earth mounds and flanked by piles of rubble.
This week, the Israeli military declared that the houses in Tulkarm would be demolished, a city near Jenin, to make the neighborhoods and crowded streets most accessible to Israeli forces and to prevent the re -emergency of the militants.
“They are taking my future away,” said Muoth Amnene, a 23 -year -old university student, Wednesday, the day he learned that his home in Tulkarm would be destroyed.
Israel has conducted frequent military operations in this area in recent years, but its forces are almost always left in a few hours or days. Since January, however, its soldiers have maintained its longest presence in the heart of the cities of the West Bank for decades.
The campaign has targeted Hamas and another Palestinian militant group, the Islamic jihad. In recent weeks, however, the clashes have become rare, in a sign that Israel and the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank have arrested or killed many militants.
The two most affected cities, Jenin and Tulkarm, have long been controlled by the Palestinian authority, by the semi -autonomous body that collaborates with Israel on security and that many Palestinians hoped evolved in the government of a future state.
But the extended presence of Israel in these cities of the West Bank is undermining the powers of the Palestinian authority. Israel claimed that the authority was not doing enough to reduce militancy in the territory.
“We are at a turning point in the conflict,” said Mohammed Jarrar, mayor of Jenin, in an interview in his office in March. “Israel behaves as if the Palestinian authority did not exist.”
The Israeli assault started days after one ceased the fire in Gaza took hold in January. At that time, the government added a new goal to its war goals: to offer a blow to the widening militants.
Days later, the armored vehicles supported by helicopters turned into the Jenin field.
Israel said she killed more than 100 militants and arresting hundreds of the operation. It has cleared around 40,000 Palestinians, more than any other military campaign in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Middle East war.
This convened the fears between some Palestinians of a second Nakba – the Arab word for the disaster that is used to describe the mass flight and the expulsion of the Palestinians during the war that surrounds the creation of Israel in 1948.
“I fear that I will not be able to go home as in 1948,” said Saleema Al-Saadi, 83 years old, residing in the Jenin field who said he had been cleared once before almost eight decades ago.
At the end of February, defense minister Israel Katz told Israeli forces to prepare to stay in Jenin and Tulkar for next year.
If this happens, it would be a great change in the way the cities of the West Bank were governed by the creation of the Palestinian Authority in the 90s. At that time, Israel sold most of the government responsibilities on the cities of the Palestinian authority.
The Times journalists visited the Jenin field escorted by a high Israeli military officer in a carrier of armored staff to obtain rare access to the limited areas. The Times did not allow the Israeli army to submit the coverage before publication, but agreed not to photograph the faces of some Israeli troops.
The armed Palestinian groups had built arms factories in the fields, they were barricters in the most crowded districts and have planted improvised explosive devices under the streets to ambush Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli forces patrol the fields of Jenin and Tulkarm day and night. They pedaling the building by building in search of weapons and detonated houses that believe they were used for military purposes.
They also expanded the roads, according to aerial photos, something that would make it easier for soldiers to reach densely populated parts of the fields. The army has demolished buildings and roads that according to him are full of terrorist hiding places and explosive traps.
“They are reporting that they want to annex,” said Amar Abu Bakr, president of Jenin's Chamber of Commerce, echoing the fear of many other Palestinians.
The Palestinian fears were fed by the fact that powerful ministers in the Israeli hard government takes place the annexation of the West Bank, which host almost three million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli colonists.
The fields – crowded neighborhoods that the Palestinians say that they embody the difficult situation of the Palestinian refugees – have hosted tens of thousands of people. Those who were once cluster of tents have evolved into concrete structures in poor neighborhoods.
Mr. Abu Bakr, The Chairman of the Jenin Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. Jarrar, The Mayor, Said they have Been Told in Late Janogy by Lt. Col. Amir Abu Janab, The Israeli Military Liaison for Jenin, That Israel Was Planning to Transform the Jenin Camp Into a Normal Neighborhood, Which Many Palestinians oppose Because they see it as an attempt to erase a Symbol of the Plight of Refugees.
They said they also said that UNRWA, the United Nations Agency that helps the Palestinians and manages schools and clinics in the West Bank, would no longer have played a role in the Jenin field. Israel has long had the relationships stretched out with the agency and hostility towards UNRWA has grown since the Gaza War began on October 7, 2023 with a Hamas attack in Israel.
Cogat, the Israeli military agency who collaborates with the Palestinians, refused to comment.
The Israeli army denied having forced people to leave. But the Palestinians said they were threatened with violence if they refused.
Kifah Sahweil, 52, said that an Israeli drone flew near his house to Jenin a few months ago, saying to her through an speaker to get his hands and leave. He said the drone warned that his house would be targeted if it wasn't compliant.
After Mrs. Sahweil rushed out with her son, the drone followed and instructed them to go until they left the field, he said.
“I heard they would kill us,” said Mrs. Sahweil.
The Senior military officer who guided the visit to Jenin said that Israeli forces were demolindo militant infrastructures such as tunnels, cache of weapons and manufacturing sites, rejecting the suggestions that Israel was pursuing objectives as well as restoring security. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the military protocol.
He indicated a former damaged railway station that had been built in 1908 when the area was part of the Ottoman Empire. He said the militants had built a secret tunnel under it that the military exploded.
About six miles from Jenin's field, hundreds of displaced Palestinians were scattered in condominiums intended for university students.
Mohammed Abu Wasfeh, 45 years old and residing in the Jenin field, was helping new arrivals to settle in apartments of a room while the children played out. For him, the most painful part of the displacement was not forced to his home, but not knowing what had happened.
“We live in the unknown,” he said. “We are experiencing a tortuous and destabilizing journey.”
He added: “We have lost control of everything”.
Lauren Leatherby Contributed relationships.