Michael Lavalette interviews Mohammed Amara, a resident of Tulkarem refugee camp, who describes the violence inflicted by the Israeli state and settlers

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Mohammed Amara. I live in Tulkarem in the north of the West Bank. I am a refugee, brought up in Tulkarem refugee camp, and my family home is in Tire in what is today Israel or Palestine48. I come from a family of refugees and our life has been shaped by the occupation.

My father was evicted from our family farm when he was fourteen. He met my mum when they were both refugees. My mum lost a leg during an Israeli attack, during the Nakba. I am one of eleven siblings brought up inside Tulkarem camp. In the early 1980s, I joined the PLO. I have spent five years in Israeli prisons as an activist and member of Fatah. My dad was imprisoned for a year, because I was his son. My brother-in-law was a prisoner during the First Intifada. My brother was shot and injured during an Israeli undercover operation. Four of my nephews have been in prison for their political activity. One of my nephews was murdered in January in a targeted Israeli undercover operation inside Tulkarem refugee camp.

Latterly, I worked for the Palestinian Trade Union Federation, and I visited Britain a few times to attend union conferences, I have attended the Unison national conference on a few occasions. I also worked for the International section of the PA for a while, organising and supporting solidarity trips to the West Bank.

We don’t hear much about the attacks taking place on the West Bank. Can you give us a little detail on what is happening in your city?

Things are really very bad at the moment. Since October 2023, there have been 52 separate incursions by Israeli occupation forces into the city. They have all lasted for at least 48 hours. During these incursions, the city and the two refugee camps (Tulkarem and Nour Shams camps) are flooded with soldiers and military equipment and they arrest people, shoot and injure people and destroy homes and infrastructure.

People are effectively under lockdown until they leave. We can’t get to the shops, we can’t get to work, you can’t leave the house, because there are snipers active everywhere.

Some people in Tulkarem used to travel to work inside Palestine48. This was stopped after October 2023, so those people have had no salary since then. The PA isn’t paying pensions and salaries on time. When there are incursions, many people lose money. In the city, unemployment is about 80% at present. People are in huge levels of debt just trying to pay bills and get food. The poverty levels are immense.

But this is nothing compared to what they are doing during the incursions. They are destroying everything.

They bring these very large D11 bulldozers in and use them to dig up and destroy roads, water pipes, sanitation and sewage pipes. The bulldozers knock down houses, crush cars, flatten walls. People in Britain might think of a bulldozer as something quite small, but the D11 that the military uses is a massive piece of equipment. It weighs over 120kg and when they drive them along the road your house shakes.

The present level of destruction is unlike anything we have been through before. In the First and Second Intifadas, they would use aircraft and helicopters to bomb houses. They used the military to shoot people and they arrested thousands. But now they have embarked on the systematic destruction of the camps and our homes.

How have things been since the ‘ceasefire’ was implemented in Gaza?

Things have taken a turn for the worse. We are now on the sixteenth day of continuous incursion. They came in on 27 January. There are soldiers everywhere in the city and snippers on most of the central buildings. Yesterday, a young thirteen-year-old boy was killed by a sniper as he stood outside his home.

They let you go out for food for the odd hour here or there, but suddenly the soldiers will appear and force the markets to close and people to return home.

Bizarrely, they have even started to give people fines for driving their cars during the non-curfew periods! And the fines are a standard 1000 NIS (about £250). Now the city and the roads are in an ‘A zone’, meaning they are the responsibility of the PA, but they have taken over this function!

The Tulkarem camp was invaded on the 27 January as well. People have been forced out of their homes. The camp houses 16000 people, 12000 have been forced out. They entered the camp and demanded people leave. Those people have struggled to find places to stay. Some have family in the city and have managed to move in with them – but of course, that means into very overcrowded conditions. Others have rented whatever accommodation is available, but it has got very expensive and is usually unfurnished, so they have nothing! Others are left sleeping on the streets because they have nowhere to go.

Those that have been left behind are people with needs. Older people, disabled people and the sick. But their situation is now desperate. They are running out of food, out of medicines and are not getting access to the special treatment and support they need. Two days ago, they have started this process in Nour Shams camp and already 2500 have been forced out.

In the camps, they are destroying everything. My dad had a shop. It’s been flattened. My dad’s home, my sister’s home, my brother’s home have all been knocked down. My other brother lived in a house right on the edge of the camp. They have taken that over and made holes in the walls for snipers to fire from. Earlier this year, they raided my dad’s home and destroyed everything inside: furniture, computers, ripped-up floors, tore down ceilings. This is being repeated in homes right across the camps.

And this isn’t just happening in Tulkarem. It’s also happening in Jenin, in Tubas and parts of Nablus. There are major incursions in Hebron, Qalqilya and parts of Ramallah. Then there are Settler attacks in places like Hawarrah. The present attacks on the West Bank aren’t much talked about, but they are of a scale and of a nature we haven’t seen before.

How are people keeping their spirits up?

Palestinians are very proud of our steadfastness, but this is a very difficult time for people. The horror in Gaza, the attacks on the West Bank and, to be frank, the mad ravings of Trump who seems to be trying to outdo Netanyahu on the barbarity stakes.

But we have no choice. This is our home, our land and we have the right to be here and to live a life of peace in our homeland. So we stay! And as I’m talking to you, let me also say that we watch on the internet the protest and the demonstrations – all the activities that people in Britain and Europe and across the world take part in – and it makes us feel we are not alone. It makes us realise that, though the governments collude with Israel, the people don’t and that gives us strength.