The site next to which the missile exploded last week, in the Nur Shams refugee camp. It was shot from a drone directly into a group of young people, who, it is claimed, weren’t doing anything wrong.Credit: Alex Levac

For the past few months, even prior to October 7, Nur Shams refugee camp, on the eastern outskirts of Tul Karm, in the central the West Bank, has been in the crosshairs of the Israel Defense Forces. Hardly a night goes by without a brutally violent incursion; the access roads and the streets inside the camp have long since been ripped up by bulldozers.

Since the war started, the IDF has stepped up its strikes and has taken to killing from the air by means of drones. Thus began, on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, a horrific round of indiscriminate killing and abuse of the wounded that lasted until the beginning of this week. It doesn’t take long for the inspiration of IDF behavior in the Gaza Strip to pass over to the West Bank: What’s permitted in Khan Yunis is permitted in Nur Shams, too.

The Al Mahajar (“quarry”) neighborhood lies on the northern flank of the camp, situated on both sides of the highway to Tul Karm. Al Mahajar is considered relatively quiet; until last week the IDF rarely raided it, not even during its nightly incursions into the camp’s Al Manshiya neighborhood, on the other side of the main road. But someone in the army decided to bring this quiet area into the circle of violence and resistance – and what better way than to fire a missile late at night straight into a group of young people who, according to witnesses, were standing around innocently in the neighborhood. Six were killed in one blow and another seven wounded, some then subjected to physical abuse.

This past Monday, the camp’s streets filled up with children; there’s no school here on New Year’s Day. Nur Shams is Gaza-like, with narrow alleys and garbage strewn everywhere. Next to the spot where the missile fell, across from the local grocery store, Palestinian phone company technicians toiled to repair damaged poles and lines. The crater the missile created in the road had already been filled in.

Waiting for us in the refugee home of the Shehadeh family is the son, Mohammed, 25, who walks with the aid of a crutch. A teacher in the primary school, he was wounded in the pelvis by shrapnel. He was soon joined by his cousin and best friend, Awas Shehadeh, 23, goalkeeper for the Palestine national soccer team and holder of a master’s degree in physical education from Kadoorie College in Tul Karm. Awas is also the goalkeeper for the Hilal al-Quds soccer team, which is based in Al-Ram, just outside Jerusalem. On October 9, the team was supposed to have flown to Tajikistan. Today, his head is bandaged and he too can hardly walk. Fragments from the missile struck him in the head.

Awas and Mohammed Shehadeh this week. One of the troops asked Mohammed where he had been wounded, and when he indicated the bleeding spot in his pelvis, started to kick him there.Credit: Alex Levac

The two recounted in articulate detail what happened to them on that night, and also last Saturday night. Their fathers – brothers both of whom have worked for decades in Israel, and who ask not to have their names used – listen from the side,.

The invasion of the camp began around 11 P.M. on December 26, in the Al Manshiya neighborhood. The sounds of the shooting and explosions could be heard very well here, and also reached the distant village of Atil, where Abdulkarim Sadi, a field researcher for the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, lives. He accompanied us bravely into the center of the refugee camp – it’s no simple matter to escort Israelis to this camp during a war.

Back to that night: About 13 young people from the neighborhood came into the street and were standing next to the grocery store. The neighborhood is built on the slope of a hill, from which it’s convenient to observe the southern part of the camp, which was being raided then by the army.

At about midnight, as they stood there watching events unfold, a missile fired from a drone overhead slammed with a thunderous roar into the group. “That was a terrible moment,” Mohammed recalls. “A scene of terror that is hard to describe.” Mohammed felt a sharp blow in the hip area and fell to the ground. Awas was hurtled through the air and landed on the road, then discovered that he was bleeding from the head and the neck from fragments that had struck him.

Around them were the dead and the dying. Two of the group died immediately, one was in death throes after losing both legs, another’s face was torn apart, three others were in very serious condition. The screams of the wounded, mingling with the screams of people who had rushed into the street, were unbearable, says Mohammed. Most of the dead and wounded were younger than him and Awas.

Mohammed heard a noise in his head that was to stay with him for a time. He felt that he was losing consciousness. Both he and Awas say they were scared that the first missile would be followed by a second, as occurred two weeks earlier next to the camp, when, as the local residents were evacuating the dead and wounded, another missile exploded in their midst. Adham Shehadeh, 33, their friend, who joined our conversation, had gone to the toilet a minute before the missile struck and so was spared. “I was saved by a miracle,” he says in his worker’s Hebrew.

Technicians fixing phone lines that were damaged by the missile, this week. “That was a terrible moment,” Mohammed recalls. “A scene of terror that is hard to describe.”Credit: Alex Levac

Two ambulances were rushed to the site, one from the Red Crescent, the other from Al Shifa, a private clinic. Until they arrived, the wounded were aided by young people from the camp, many of whom have taken first-aid courses, which are now in demand here. The first ambulance arrived after about half an hour, having been detained on the highway, and squeezed in the three most badly wounded young people, before departing. The second ambulance also had no choice but to cram three of the wounded into its narrow space: Awas, Mohammed and another person, Mahmoud Rashad, 19, whose leg was bleeding. Then they faced another problem.

At the end of the road that descends from the neighborhood a large force of Border Police troops was waiting for them. Firing into the air, they ordered the paramedic to stop, turn off the engine and look only forward, according to the testimony he gave Sadi. The paramedic said that his arrival in the camp had been arranged via the Coordination and Liaison Directorate. The Border Police opened the side and back doors of the ambulance. They grabbed Mohammed, who was sitting on the seat next to the side door, and threw him onto the road. Mohammed heard one of the men say to another, “Pump a bullet into his head,” and terror welled up in him. “Why? Why? I didn’t do anything!” he shouted helplessly.

The troops handcuffed Mohammed behind his back, made him spread his legs to search him, blindfolded him and told him to kneel on the ground, head bent down. One of the troops asked where he had been wounded, and when he indicated the bleeding spot in his pelvis, started to kick him there. Each kick was accompanied by curses. This was the start of a round of beatings, Mohammed says, that involved being punched and kicked by many Border Police officers, who took turns in striking him as he knelt on the ground. Most of the troops were masked. A few struck him in the head with their rifle butts. One kicked him in the testicles. “Do you want your leg?” another asked, aiming his rifle at Mohammed’s leg.

In the meantime, they also checked and discovered that he had a clean record. The other two wounded Palestinians waited in the ambulance, dizzy and losing blood. When Mohammed told an officer who interrogated him on the spot, by phone, that he had been beaten, the troops punished him by hitting him again. “No one is clean in Nur Shams, the whole camp is whores and sons of bitches,” they told him, like their buddies in Gaza say.

An Israel Police spokesperson this week told Haaretz: “During operational activity of the security forces to prevent terrorism, terrorists threw [explosive] devices at them and endangered the lives of our forces. The fighters acted to preserve security, examined the suspects and allowed the wounded to be evacuated in ambulances.”

The alleys of Nur Shams.Credit: Alex Levac

When he stopped feeling woozy, he discovered that he was in the ambulance, and that his head had been bandaged. “You will stay here until you die, you won’t get to a hospital,” one of the troops threatened. Another took a selfie with the wounded as a souvenir. They cursed the wounded Palestinians and also laughed at them. Only after an hour or so was the ambulance permitted to leave, and it sped to Thabet Thabet Hospital, a government institution in Tul Karm.

Last Saturday night, the IDF again entered the refugee camp. There were some 200 soldiers, according to eyewitnesses. Entering the homes in the Al Mahajar neighborhood, they ordered all males above the age of 14 to gather in a single house, where they were all bound and blindfolded. This included Mohammed, who had been discharged from the hospital after two days. Around 15 men and adolescents were herded into each of the rooms, in densely crowded conditions. He heard the soldiers: “They are asshole Hamas, maybe we’ll take them and throw them in the Jordan?” “No, if we throw them in the Jordan, they’ll come back.” “Maybe we should give each of them a bullet in the head?” “No, it’s a pity to waste the money a bullet costs, 10 agurot [a few pennies] per round. We’ll take them and dump them in Gaza.” “There is no more Gaza. We’ll take them to Sinai.” “Let them go f--- themselves in Khan Yunis, and we’ll level all their homes here and make the country bigger for us.”

So it continued in the packed rooms from 2:30 A.M. until 10 A.M. on Sunday. Anyone who asked to relieve himself was told, “What do you think, that you’re in school? Go in your pants.”

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit this week gave the following statement to Haaretz: "On the night of December 26, IDF, Shin Bet and Border Police forces undertook an anti-terror operation at the Nur Shams refugee camp, which is under the authority of the Menashe Territorial Brigade. During the course of the action, the soldiers identified terrorists who threw [explosive] devices at them. An aerial vehicle of the air force attacked the gang, and six of the terrorists were eliminated as a result.

“On the night of December 31, the IDF again operated in the Nur Shams refugee camp, during the course of which dozens of suspects were interrogated. Five of them were arrested and transferred for continued questioning by the security forces. Some of the suspects were held for a number of hours because of the lengthy operation and due to the nature of the interrogation. The forces allowed those who requested to attend to their bodily needs. Throughout the entire action, there were exchanges of fire, which is why the forces held some of the suspects the whole time. When the forces left, the suspects were released.”

Finally the soldiers left, leaving the dozens of men still bound and blindfolded. On the way out, the troops smashed a few car windshields. We saw them this week, shattered.

Gideon Levy, Alex Levac