The elusive commander of the Nur Shams brigade, Mohammad Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, was killed on the night of August 28 during an exchange of fire in a mosque, in the course of a large-scale operation carried out by the Israeli army in the northern West Bank. Based in the refugee camp next to the town of Tulkarem, home to Palestinians driven off their land in 1948, Abu Shujaa was the head of a composite armed unit. Although officially affiliated to Islamic Jihad, it includes members of Hamas, as well as other Palestinian groups and factions, including some close to Fatah. Several times given up for dead, Abu Shujaa had re-emerged, escaping both strikes and fighting in the alleyways of Nur Shams.
Since August 27, three towns in the north of the occupied region have been targeted in a vast joint operation, bringing together troops from several Israeli brigades, members of special units operating clandestinely and elements of the border police, with air reinforcements. Even by the standards of the frequency and intensity of operations against the strongholds of Palestinian armed groups over the past 11 months in this area, this one was unusually large-scale.
The Jenin refugee camp and two others in Tulkarem − including the Nur Shams camp to the west, not far from the separation barrier closing off access to the Israeli central plain, and the Al-Faraa camp to the east near Tubas, toward the Jordan Valley − were targeted.
Israel has deployed helicopter gunships, drones, armored vehicles and the usual giant bulldozers, which are tearing up the roads in search of explosive devices (several have been detonated in the last few hours), as well as ravaging water, electricity and sewage infrastructure. Ground forces numbering several hundred men from several brigades have surrounded the camps. In Jenin, considered the most important regional stronghold of the armed groups, the operation ended on Thursday morning. “The fighters were not in the camp,” said a source close to their leaders. Armed fighters are also scattered in the surrounding towns, from where they sometimes stage sudden reprisals against the Israeli army, which is often caught off-guard while encircling the Jenin camp.
Israel’s new large-scale operation had to meet several imperatives. Firstly, to attack three major centers where armed groups are best established. The only one missing was Nablus, whose Balata camp has been targeted so frequently in recent months that, because of targeted killings and arrests, it is now considered less active. Secondly, to target the Nur Shams brigade in Tulkarem, now without a leader, where the siege was maintained on Thursday morning. The day before, the camp’s inhabitants had been asked to flee the area.
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