Jenin – “Little Gaza”

Jenin Refugee Camp is home to about 14,000 people, descendants of the Palestinians dispossessed of their land and homes when the state of Israel was created in 1948.

I was privileged to spend time in the camp in 2018 and 2019, living with a family, working in a Day Centre for children and experiencing first hand life under a military occupation.

Conditions in the camp were desperate, even before the latest attacks by the Israeli Defence Force. Of the 10 camps across the occupied West Bank, Jenin had the highest rates of unemployment and poverty, according to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Today from the pictures I see on Al Jazeera, BBC and others the camp is unrecognisable. The roads are dug up and buildings partially or completely destroyed.

And the messages I receive from my friend Maisa (not her real name) are heartbreaking. I cannot imagine the fear and sense of hopelessness the people living in the camp are feeling.

For they are people. They are not just numbers, they are not just Arabs, or just Palestinians, or just terrorists. They are friends, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers who hope and dream and love like we do. They are people who welcomed me to their homes, fed me, talked with me, hugged me. We laughed and cried together.

Now some of those I met have died, been killed or injured. Those still surviving suffer immensely from the soldier’s incursions. Maisa’s sister is talking to herself, beside herself – both her children are haemophiliac and she cannot access the medicines they need. Her brother Hamza and father have both been beaten and Hamza has a broken arm as a result. Her brother Mohammed is still in prison, no charges brought. Maisa tells me how tempers are short and how arguments break out with each other without good reason, with tears soon following.

I took this photo in 2018. Musleh used to come to the centre to develop his English skills and he was a pleasure to know. Sadly he died last month, becoming ill after drinking dirty water.

Israeli soldiers have been surrounding the camp for four or five days now and the streets have been deserted with people frightened to leave their homes for fear of being shot by a sniper.

Maisa tells me the soldiers have cleared the hospitals and schools of people who have been sheltering there and have forced five or six families to share one home. There is no water, no electricity. Food, once fresh, rots in the street. Phones are charged from solar power banks. But even with phones it is difficult for people to know what is going on outside as contacts have been blocked.

Then yesterday she sent me a message asking for prayers. All the men from the family have now been arrested and taken.

Whatever faith you may have, please remember in your prayers and hearts the people of Jenin, for Maisa and her family and for all those innocents suffering at this time.