On Sunday, a pregnant Palestinian woman was among two women killed by Israeli forces during a raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm.
Sundus Shalabi, 23, who was eight months pregnant, was shot by Israeli gunfire while traveling in a car with her husband and two children. The husband was also critically injured in the attack.
Palestinian officials said the Israeli military blocked access to the car, making it impossible for paramedics to attempt to save Shalabi and her unborn child. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israeli forces obstructed “the ambulance from reaching the injured and trying to rescue them.”
Khaled Bdair, a journalist who spoke to Middle East Eye about the incident, said the ambulance was blocked for about a half hour. “When the Red Crescent Society ambulance arrived to transport them, it was held up for thirty minutes before being allowed to proceed, and then her death was announced,” Bdair said.
Later in the day, another woman, 21-year-old Rahaf Fuad Abdullah, was shot and killed by Israeli troops in the refugee camp. “
The Israeli assault on the Nur Shams camp and Tulkarm is part of its new military operation that it launched on January 21, dubbed “Iron Wall,” which started with a renewed attack on Jenin and its refugee camp. The IDF began attacking Tulkarm just a few days later and significantly escalated in the city on Sunday.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Israeli troops have been destroying infrastructure and residential buildings in Nur Shams. Such destruction has been a feature of the “Iron Wall” operation.
“Israeli bulldozers destroyed several streets within the camp and also targeted the camp’s infrastructure, damaging water lines in the Jabal al-Nasr area. Forces destroyed several shops and homes, including setting fire to a house located on the main street of the camp,” WAFA reported.
Tulkarm residents have described the attack on the city as a “small-scale” Gaza. Israeli officials have threatened they would apply “lessons” they learned in the genocidal war on Gaza to its military operations in the West Bank.
