On the evening of 11 December, 15-year-old Palestinian Jana Majdi Zakarneh went onto the roof of her home in the West Bank city of Jenin to find her cat. Soon after, the sound of gunfire echoed across Jenin’s streets, as Israeli occupation forces carried out yet another night-time raid. After the gunfire ceased, Jana’s father and younger brother went looking for Jana. When they reached the roof, they confronted a terrible sight. Jana lifeless body lay in a puddle of blood, riddled by bullets from sniper fire.
Jana is the 166th Palestinian, and 39th child, to be killed in the West Bank this year, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa. In Jenin alone, 59 have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces, including fifteen children. According to the UN, 2022 has been the deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians since 2006. More than 9,000 have been injured.
Jana’s home, the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, was established in 1953 by Palestinian refugees who had fled Zionist militia during the Nakba. Today, the camp is home to 12,000 Palestinians living in an area of just 42 square kilometres. The camp’s residents, over generations, have endured terrible crimes at the hands of their occupiers.
In 2002, during the second intifada, Jenin was invaded by Israeli infantry, elite commandos and assault helicopters. Armoured bulldozers destroyed 400 homes, leaving a quarter of the camp’s population homeless. At least one resident, a disabled man, was buried alive under the rubble of his home. Ten days later, the army withdrew. Before doing so, they hurriedly buried Palestinian bodies in the hospital grounds to hide their crimes, according to eyewitness accounts.
Read the article by Nick Everett in Red Flag.