Jenin – With endless sadness, Palestinian Jamal Huwail stands inside the cemetery of the martyrs of the battle of Jenin camp in 2002, but sadness turns into pride when he mentions the name of one of them, explaining his resistance to the occupation army until his martyrdom, as Huwail was fighting alongside them.
The battle, which coincides with the anniversary of the passage of the second day of April, lasted 10 days and was immortalized by Palestinians with a memorial to its martyrs, and there Huwail points to one of the graves, saying, "This is the grave of the martyr Mahmoud Tawalbeh, one of the most prominent field commanders in the battle, and there is the tomb of Nubani, the owner of the 13th ambush in the camp."
Huwail was a member of the joint combat operations room in what was described as the most violent battle in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, when the occupation decided to invade the Jenin camp and the cities of the West Bank following a hotel bombing in the city of Netanya inside Israel, which resulted in the death of 60 Palestinians and the wounding of more than 243, and Israel's admission of the killing of 24 soldiers.
Huwail sits on the edge of a rock in the middle of the cemetery and begins to recount the details of the battle by saying that "another battle preceded the battle of April 2002, which took place in March of the same year, when the resistance managed to kill 9 Israeli soldiers, while 24 Palestinian citizens were martyred, and the occupation forces were unable to enter the camp."
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Huwail added that "with the beginning of April 2002, the occupation forces besieged the camp and strengthened their forces in its vicinity, the goal was clear to eliminate the resistance in general and in the camp in particular, because Jenin camp has been known since the year 69 to embrace the resistance under the wings of all factions."
"Ariel Sharon came to the forests of happiness near Jenin and supervised the battle, in addition to using all kinds of weapons, even F-16s, Cobras, Apaches, troop carriers, snipers, and special units such as Golani, Yamam and Givat," he said.
Jenin Martyrs Cemetery where Jamal Huwail remembers the courage of his colleagues in the battle, which he was a member of its operations room (Al Jazeera Net)
Memories of the battle
Huwail details the days he spent with the fighters, most of whom were martyred, explaining that "the scale of destruction was very large, Israel did not differentiate between a civilian and a fighter, everyone was targeted, and the people lived days of terror and siege."
He continued, "I remember one of the martyrs who was fighting to Jabni when we had to move from the place where we were holed up, he told me I recommend you to my four daughters, I want to see my house before I go, and when I alerted him to the danger of that, he said I am dead dead I want to see my house from afar before my martyrdom, and indeed he stood up to look at his house and a sniper's bullet came to him in the neck and he was martyred immediately."
It also mentions the story of the martyrdom of the commander of the Al-Quds Brigades, Mahmoud Tawalbeh, along with the martyr Shadi al-Nubani, who were martyred at the same moment and buried together in two adjacent graves as if they were one grave.
He added that one of the moving stories is also the story of the martyr Maryam Washahi, the lady who used to prepare food for the resisters daily, and on a day she was trying to deliver hot pies she asked her to beware of snipers, but she said that she should have been martyred a long time ago, at that moment I could not tell her that her son was injured and his condition was dangerous, the next day Maryam was martyred while preparing dough to prepare bread, and two days later her son Mounir Washahi was martyred.
Tomb brings together the commander of the Jerusalem Brigades, Mahmoud Tawalbeh, with Shadi Al-Nubani (Al Jazeera Net)
The disappearance of Muhammad al-Badawi
In the western neighborhood of Jenin refugee camp, Siham Takman, 53, who lost her brother Muhammad al-Badawi in the battle of Nisan, and she and her family have not been able to reach him alive or dead to his body until today.
"My brother Muhammad was carrying weapons and participating with the youth of the camp in the fighting, we lived in my father's house in the western neighborhood, the siege remained for 4 days, and on the fifth day the entry of Israeli forces into the camp began, on that day my brother Muhammad came out and did not return and we have not found any trace of him until today," Siham said.
Some news was received by Mohammed's family that he was injured by rocket fragments, and the doctor demanded that he be transferred as soon as possible to the hospital due to bleeding, but the siege prevented that, so his comrades took him to Al-Hawashin neighborhood in the middle of the camp, and there the occupation mechanisms completely swept away the houses of the neighborhood, and Mohammed's companions could not carry him with them, so it was not known whether he remained under the backfill or not.
"I remember the last night I spent with him, he was in a hurry and asked me to bring him a shaving kit to shave his chin, I told him that the time is not suitable for shaving, especially since the electricity is cut off in all neighborhoods of the camp, but he insisted and actually shaved his chin in a hurry, and I went to the edge of the house and when I came back I did not find him, it happened within seconds only, and from that moment I did not see him."
"After the massacre, they showed us the results of an analysis of a number of martyrs who were found to be in pieces or burned, but none of them matched my brother Mohammed, today I ask myself, even if he remains under the rubble of Al-Hawashin neighborhood, can not one of his bones, for example, even show a piece of his clothes?"
The graves of the martyrs of the battle of Jenin 2002 witness to the crimes of the occupation and inspire new generations the need to continue the resistance (Al Jazeera Net)
Human shields
In turn, Osama al-Huwaiti recounts some of the details of the battle that stuck in his memory as a child who did not exceed ten years old at the time, saying, "What stuck in my memory most was the last day of the battle, scenes of destruction scattered throughout the camp, body parts in some streets, and I can never forget the state of astonishment and horror that people had, everyone was in a state of stupor."
He added, "One day of the siege, an ambulance arrived in front of our house, and its crew included Dr. Khalil Suleiman, who was later named Jenin Governmental Hospital after him, the occupation army bombed them with a missile, my father tried to go out to pull them home and help them, and to take shelter from the bullets of Israeli snipers, he carried my baby sister and went out, but the doctor had been martyred."
Al-Huwaiti confirmed that the Israeli occupation forces used them more than once as human shields while moving from one house to another inside the camp.
Get inspired by the experience
Jamal Huwail, a fighter from the Jenin Brigade who came to visit the grave of a relative who was martyred in battle, carries his rifle on his right shoulder and tries to clean the sides of the grave of weeds with the other hand. This fighter was a child on the day of the Battle of April, and today the resistance fighters are participating in confronting the repeated incursions of the occupation army into the camp.
The fighter, who preferred not to be named, said, "We may not be aware of the details of the massacre in its details on that date, because we were children when it happened, but we are aware of what the occupation has been doing for more than 70 years in all of Palestine, we as fighters derive our determination from the stories of the heroic martyrs in the April 2002 battle."
This is also confirmed by Jamal Huwail, who believes that the state of the camp in 2002 was reflected in the education of the new generation that carries weapons and confronts the current incursions of the occupation, pointing out that the fighters are now the sons and relatives of the martyrs of the April 2002 battle.