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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The Tulkarem Brigade’s ‘men in the sun’ resist in search of freedom</h1>
<span class="gmail-post-author"><span class="gmail-by">By</span> <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/author/shatha-hanaysha/" title="Posts by Shatha Hanaysha" class="gmail-author gmail-url gmail-fn" rel="author">Shatha Hanaysha</a></span>
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<a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/the-tulkarem-brigades-men-in-the-sun-resist-in-search-of-freedom/" class="gmail-date-link">January 5, 2024</a>
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<img src="cid:ii_lr284wvq0" alt="IMG_5632-1-1024x683.jpg" width="391" height="261"><br><p>On Thursday, January 4, the Israeli army withdrew from the Nour Shams
refugee camp after a 38-hour invasion. The withdrawal followed a
military operation that has been described by residents as the largest
that Tulkarem has seen since the Second Intifada. </p>
<p>Located in the eastern part of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, <em>nour shams</em>
translates as “the light of the sun.” Perhaps the camp gets this name
because the sunrise makes its first appearance in the camp’s alleyways
before it floods the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Nour Shams is also home to the <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/08/west-bank-dispatch-the-tulkarem-brigade-resists/">Tulkarem Brigade</a>,
an umbrella organization composed of resistance fighters with differing
political affiliations, including the armed wings of Fatah, Hamas, and
the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Unlike the eponymous “men in the sun”
from Ghassan Kanafani’s classic novel who died without resistance, the
Palestinian fighters in Nour Shams refugee camp are taking action in
search of freedom. </p>
<p>During the two-day operation, Israeli forces injured 17 Palestinians
through gunfire and physical assault. The army also shelled two homes in
the camp, destroyed streets and infrastructure, and engaged in the
confiscation and sabotage of residents’ properties, including homes and
public and private facilities. In a statement, the Israeli army
characterized it as a broad operation involving arrests, field
interrogations, the destruction of the military capabilities of the
Palestinian resistance, and the confiscation of weapons.</p>
<p>Much like its conduct during a <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/little-gaza-in-jenin-refugee-camp-the-resistance-fights-for-survival/">three-day invasion of the Jenin refugee camp</a>
last month, Israeli forces obstructed the work of ambulance vehicles,
and attacked and shot at journalists, preventing them from covering the
raid. Israeli soldiers raided people’s homes and converted some of them
into military barracks and observation points. They also punched holes
in the walls of their homes, reminiscent of the Israeli army’s military
strategy in Jenin refugee camp in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Haj3BPlBsAY">Operation Defensive Shield</a> in 2002.</p>
<img width="391" height="261" src="https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG_5685-1024x683.jpg" alt="Aftermath of an Israeli military raid in Nour Shams refugee camp, December 31, 2023. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">Aftermath of an Israeli military raid in Nour Shams refugee camp, December 31, 2023. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)
<p>The Palestinian Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and
the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reported that Israeli forces detained
and conducted field investigations with 500 Palestinians, including
children and women. Approximately 150 of them were transferred to one of
its camps, and 20 Palestinians were arrested by the end of it.</p>
<p>One of the released detainees, who preferred not to disclose his name, provided an account of the events.</p>
<p>“What happened was a massive invasion of the camp,” he told <em>Mondoweiss</em>.
“They demolished homes, displaced families, and destroyed properties as
part of a collective punishment policy…this is a policy of
humiliation.” </p>
<p>“Inside the homes, women are detained as a form of psychological
torture,” he continued. “And afterward, men and young people are
transported by military vehicles to areas such as factories or open
spaces, deceiving us into believing they are taking us to a distant
location.”</p>
<p>The nature of the interrogations mostly consisted of routine
questions and attempts by the interrogators to incite camp residents
against the resistance fighters, he told <em>Mondoweiss</em>. </p>
<p>“They want us to revolt against the resistance and the youth involved
in resistance efforts, and try to make us say anything against them,”
the released detainee explained. “They repeatedly said that the
destruction and the current situation are their fault, and that we
should stand against the resistance.”</p>
<p>After their release, they were gathered in a mosque and prevented from returning to their homes. </p>
<p>“We knew nothing about our families,” he continued. “We couldn’t
communicate with them because they took the phones of the women and
girls [in their families]. They had been confined to their homes for two
days, and we didn’t know anything about them, isolated from the world.”</p>
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<img width="391" height="261" src="https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG_5727-1024x683.jpg" alt="Aftermath of an Israeli military raid in Nour Shams refugee camp, December 31, 2023. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div>
<h2>‘When we carry our weapons, we stop feeling humiliated’</h2>
<p>The Israeli army had previously raided Nour Shams on December 31,
four days before this latest incursion. I was in the camp and saw the
moments immediately following the army’s withdrawal. As is customary at
the end of each Israeli incursion, dozens of camp residents come out to
assess the invasion’s aftermath, which typically involves the
destruction of homes and streets.</p>
<p>Resistance fighters emerged from the alleyways, dressed in dirty
clothes, visibly weary-eyed despite the black masks covering their
faces, still sporting their weapons and remaining on alert. </p>
<p>The fighters surveyed the destruction of the camp and started combing
nearby shops and homes, anticipating the presence of Israeli forces
remaining behind for a potential ambush, especially in abandoned areas —
one fighter said that the army had done so previously in Jenin refugee
camp. </p>
<p>“After a 12-hour invasion and the entrance of a large military force,
they couldn’t do anything but vent their anger on a few homes, rocks,
and trees,” a 19-year-old resistance fighter, reflecting on the
situation, told me. “When they are unable, they resort to airstrikes,
but we have become more aware of how to avoid them.”</p>
<p>Tulkarem has become a battleground in recent months as the Israeli
army has taken advantage of the war on Gaza to try to eradicate the
armed resistance in the West Bank. The brunt of <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/israel-intensifies-crackdown-on-armed-resistance-in-jenin-following-october-7/">Israel’s recent West Bank offensive</a>
has been borne by Jenin refugee camp, especially during its three-day
raid last month, turning the camp into “little Gaza.” In those raids,
the army was aiming to assassinate or arrest the resistance fighters in
the <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2022/11/inside-the-wasps-nest-the-rise-of-the-jenin-brigade/">Jenin Brigade</a>,
one of the most prominent armed groups that also functions as an
umbrella organization encompassing fighters with differing factional
alleigances.</p>
<p>Now, the Israeli army has turned its attention to Tulkarem,
specifically Nour Shams refugee camp. The main target of its renewed
campaign is the Tulkarem Brigade.</p>
<p>What sets apart the Tulkarem Brigade, according to Nour Shams
residents, is what they call its “ferocity.” Resistance fighters from
the group have engaged in what many consider the most intense armed
confrontations in the West Bank, involving the exchange of live
ammunition and the targeting of Israeli military vehicles with locally
made explosives. </p>
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<p>The Brigade frequently posts videos on its <a href="https://t.me/SrayaTolkrm/111">Telegram channel</a>,
highlighting the losses incurred by the Israeli army during its raids.
What caught my attention during the most recent raid was that the
Brigade continued to update the channel and report on the group’s
operations against Israeli soldiers throughout the 36-hour raid. After
the military operation concluded, the Brigade issued a statement
addressed to the camp’s residents: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Your soldiers, the Brigade’s troops, have been a thorn in the side
of the Israeli army by preparing ambushes, explosive devices, and
remotely detonating booby-trapped cars, resulting in casualties among
their forces in several axes. We say to the enemy, who conceals what
happened in the camp’s axes: your defeat and humiliation will be
revealed on the camp’s soil, and tomorrow will witness a close
reckoning.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These military invasions of Nour Shams have become routine ever since October 7. </p>
<p>“Every day, there is an incursion,” the young resistance fighter told <em>Mondoweiss</em>.
“However, this will not affect us or weaken our resolve. Since our
childhood, we have been living under occupation, not seeing our
country.” </p>
<p>The majority of the resistance fighters are in their late teens and
twenties, meaning most of them were born during or shortly after the
Second Intifada. None of them have a memory of living in a landscape not
marred by checkpoints and Israeli military presence.</p>
<p>“Living in the camp feels like being in a prison. Before joining the
resistance, I lived like any other young person — working, returning
home, and spending time with friends,” the resistance fighter continued.
“But what changed me and made me think about resistance was when I went
outside Tulkarem. There are many checkpoints, and at the checkpoint,
there is searching, humiliation, beating, and verbal abuse. The
occupation forced us into this path. When we carry our weapons, we feel
victorious and stop feeling humiliated. Instead, we feel pride. Every
time they enter the camp, we make them leave humiliated, and that’s when
we feel dignity.”</p>
<img width="391" height="261" src="https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG_5722-1024x683.jpg" alt="A Palestinian resistance fighter from the Tulkarem Brigade in Nour Shams refugee camp, December 31, 2023. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">“What
changed me and made me think about resistance was when I went outside
Tulkarem. There are many checkpoints, and at the checkpoint, there is
searching, humiliation, beating, and verbal abuse. The occupation forced
us into this path.” (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)
<p>When I asked him about his dreams for the future, his answer reflected the reality imposed on him by the occupation. </p>
<p>“My dream is victory or following in the footsteps of my friends,” he
said. “Four of my friends were martyred recently. One of my friends was
killed right in front of me, and he wasn’t even a fighter — he was a
civilian. God willing, we will avenge our martyrs. Their blood is not
cheap.”</p>
<p>Another resistance member I met spoke solemnly of the fighters’
commitment to resisting even though they knew that they would die. </p>
<p>“The occupation will not affect us with its repeated invasions, and
it will not weaken the resistance,” the fighter said with clarity. “This
is a pressure tactic; the occupation itself is under pressure, and, of
course, they will [keep invading] and more. They will repeat it, once,
twice, and ten times, but it will not affect us.” </p>
<div>
<img width="261" height="391" src="https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG_5646-683x1024.jpg" alt="Palestinian resistance fighters from the Tulkarem Brigade in Nour Shams refugee camp, standing on top of the remains of an Israel army bulldozer, December 31, 2023. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;">Palestinian
resistance fighters from the Tulkarem Brigade in Nour Shams refugee
camp, standing on top of the remains of an Israel army bulldozer,
December 31, 2023. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)</div>
<p>“We resist because this is our land, our dignity, and our honor — and
for our people in Gaza, the West Bank, and the ’48 lands,” he
continued. “It is imposed on us to resist…I expect that I will be
martyred — today, tonight, tomorrow, at any moment. But the resistance
will continue. One resistance fighter will be succeeded by another.
Resistance will not end as one generation passes it to the next, and we
will pass it to the generation after us.”</p>
<p>He was standing with his companion on the remains of an Israeli
military bulldozer in the courtyard of the Nour Shams camp. The
bulldozer is a testament to the fighters’ newest innovations in
defending their home against the perpetually invading military force,
employing IEDs to ambush Israeli soldiers and vehicles, insisting on
exacting a heavy price for each Israeli onslaught.</p>
<h2><strong>‘I wish I could live for just one day without occupation’</strong></h2>
<p>We stand in the middle of an alleyway in the Al-Manshiyah
neighborhood in Nour Shams, commonly dubbed by camp residents as the
Israeli army’s “alley of horror.” The sky is concealed by plastic
tarpaulin set up by the resistance fighters to prevent Israeli
reconnaissance aircraft from observing, monitoring, and targeting them. </p>
<p>I met a 19-year-old resistance fighter following the December 31
invasion. His brother was a fighter who was killed by an Israeli
airstrike during an armed confrontation.</p>
<p>He informs me that he left university, where he was studying dental
technology, to join the resistance. He described his joy upon acquiring a
weapon for resisting the occupation, likening it to the feeling of a
father holding his first child.</p>
<p>He tells me about his martyred brother. “My relationship with my
brother was more than just brotherhood,” he said. “He was my friend. He
was a friend to my father, my mother, everyone. His death is what made
me go down this path. It was his will — he was the one who urged me to
continue the resistance.”</p>
<p>“I was with my brother when he was killed,” he explained. “A few
others and I transported him. Initially, he had a pulse and was
breathing lightly, but he was not conscious, unlike his friend, who was
talking to us. But they both died afterward.”</p>
<p>Like all his fellow resistance fighters, he told me he dreams of
liberating his homeland, that this gives him the drive to move forward. </p>
<p>“I am a refugee, and my dream is to return to the homeland from which
we were displaced,” he elaborated. “My dream, like the dream of every
free and honorable person, is to liberate Palestine from occupation. I
wish I could live for just one day without occupation.”</p>
<p>After speaking to him, I visited his family home and met his father,
who, decades ago, was also a resistance fighter in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’
Brigades, the military wing of Fatah. He had been imprisoned for several
years in Israeli jails. </p>
<p>“I was a resistance fighter in the First and Second Intifadas, and
today my son is a resistance fighter,” he told me. “And my [other] son
is a martyr and a resistance fighter as well. My children grew up to
continue our mission.”</p>
<p>“In Palestine, we inherit resistance and the rifle, from one
generation to the next,” he continued. “It’s become an instinct for
those living under occupation. Resistance is present in our hearts and
in our consciousness. This is what I taught my children.” </p>
<p>“I consider all these young people as my sons,” he added, referring
to the fighters in the camp. “I worry about them, and when the Israeli
soldiers withdraw from the camp, I hurry out to check in on them and
make sure they’re OK.”</p>
<img width="391" height="261" src="https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG_5633-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">Aftermath of an Israeli military raid in Nour Shams refugee camp, December 31, 2023. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)
<p>Suleiman Zuhairi, a local Fatah leader in the camp, tells <em>Mondoweiss</em>
that 27 people have been martyred in Nour Shams in the past two months,
most of them children. A significant number of them were killed due to
the army delaying ambulances and preventing them from reaching the
hospital.</p>
<p>“During raids, residents can’t reach the UNRWA clinics inside the
camp because they are closed,” Zuhairi explains. “Ambulances are held
and prevented from approaching the camp. Most of those who were killed
recently died because…they bled to death, and their injuries were not
severe.”</p>
<p>Zuhairi adds that the destruction of the camp by the Israeli army’s
bulldozers and occasional airstrikes has caused the unearthing of its
infrastructure. </p>
<p>“Some areas have been dug up several times and destroyed multiple
times,” Zuhairi says. “The water, the electricity, the sewage networks,
all of them were dug up and destroyed, and even mosques have been
attacked.” </p>
<p>The destruction of homes is also significant, as the Israeli army
punched holes in walls, broke down doors, and destroyed windows. “We now
have more than 100 houses without windows or doors,” Zuhairi said. </p>
<img width="391" height="261" src="https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG_5766-1024x683.jpg" alt="Aftermath of an Israeli military raid in Nour Shams refugee camp, December 31, 2023. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">After the raid on December 31, 2023. (Photo: Shatha Hanaysha)
<p>As I walked the camp’s streets in the raid’s aftermath, I watched as
people returned to their homes, exchanging greetings and expressing joy
that they were safe. Whenever they passed by a destroyed house or shop,
they would reassure the owner, saying, “It doesn’t matter, money can be
compensated, what matters is that you and your family are safe.”</p>
<p>The unfolding scene brought me back to the Jenin refugee camp — the
same scene, the same aftermath, repeating itself again and again. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong><a href="https://mondoweiss.net/author/shatha-hanaysha/">Shatha Hanaysha </a><br></strong>Shatha Hanaysha is a Palestinian journalist based in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.</p>
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