Sirens, Bombs, and Explosions in Jenin

Contributed by: Salwa

Date of Testimony: November 22, 2023; March 16, 2024

Location: Jenin, Palestine

November 22, 2023

Every 2-3 days there is a new attack in Jenin. Two days ago, we heard in the Telegram group that the IOF were gathering, and they hadn’t come for one week. I told my mom, “I am going to sleep and after half an hour they will come.” I was sleeping when the sirens, bombs, and explosions started. Just two days ago, there were two martyrs and six injuries.

I am a Palestinian, I am a Jenini. Imagine someone is sleeping at the hospital and he is killed.

I started going to bed at 7 pm so I can get some sleep before the drone and missile attacks start at 2 am.

Location: Jenin, Palestine

March 16, 2024

Usually, they say Jenin is a small Gaza. During Ramadan, because the attacks generally happen at night, people are an easy target because they are on the streets late at night. In the past, it was rare for the IOF to enter during the day. Now, they attack during the day; their special forces enter, and after people discover them, their soldiers come within minutes.

Every 2-3 days, there is a new attack in Jenin. In our minds, there is a constant ringing that the IOF may come. We don’t know at what time we will be targeted or when they will enter. There is no stability in our lives.

Even when we plan for something, we say it with our inshallahs and laugh. There are a lot of ifs. If they don’t enter the camp. If there are no martyrs. If there is no strike.

On the second day of Ramadan, they attacked my neighborhood again. We thought it was a bombing because it started with an explosion, but the house was shaking. We were praying fajr, and everyone was screaming outside. The sound of the drone was in our ears. “No, these are missiles,” we realized.

There was panic in the streets. Women fainted. People had been walking back from praying at the mosque, and some were still in the street. Alhamdulillah, no one was hurt.

The balcony to the room at my uncle’s house where we slept had fallen. It no longer had any glass, and a bullet entered my uncle’s bedroom and reached the kitchen. The drone hit the trees in front of our house. The missiles destroyed the ceiling, and the rockets reached my neighbor’s house on the first floor, exactly in front of our house.

Since October 7, Jenin has become a target. There is a clear escalation in the camp and the city. The IOF has used many different weapons to kill us here. They have even been aggressive toward the infrastructure, as though every inch of our city was resisting them.

They destroyed much of the camp, and there is no entrance now. The arch is gone, and there is no sign reminding us that Jenin refugee camp is a temporary place. There is no horse. Only the street is left. You have the photographs. You were lucky. They changed the shape of the camp, and everything has been destroyed.