amna: After two days of intense
combat, Palestinians today left
their homes to find the jenin
refugee camp in the northern
occupied west bank in shambles.
Israel's military operation,
that it says targeted militants,
laid waste to vast swaths of the
camp.
12 Palestinians were killed,
including nine that militant
groups claimed as their
fighters.
One Israeli soldier was also
killed.
Special correspondent Leila
molana-allen was there late
today for us, and she joins me
now from Jerusalem.
Welcome and thank you for
joining us.
You went to that jenin refugee
camp today.
What can you tell us about the
latest on the ground and what
residents told you?
Leila: On the drive to the camp
there were Israeli defense
forces additions along the road.
It is clear things were still
very tense.
Driving along you could see the
burnt remnants of roadblocks
that had been made by protesters
the last few days to try and
block off the Israeli defense
forces from coming further into
the camp.
Once we got there we were told
we had to be very careful going
in because they had been using
improvised explosive devices and
they were still trying to clear
them to make sure it was safe.
Civilians were trying to clear
the streets.
Once inside, there was huge
destruction in the center of the
camp.
You are walking along and
suddenly it changes from tarmac
to sand, and you realize it is
because the piles of rubble on
the street are not from
buildings, they are the entire
road having been bulldozed up.
The Israeli defense forces say
they were looking for explosive
devices.
The people there say it was just
putative, destroying their
streets because they came in and
could not find what they were
looking for.
Amna: We heard from prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu
today speaking about the
operation.
Here is just a part of what he
had to say.
>> This is just the first step.
It is not by no means the last
action that we will take.
We will do what we can, from the
ground, from the air, with
superb intelligence.
We will do what we can to fight
the terrorists.
They shall have no safe haven.
Amna: So what more do we know
about what exactly the Israel
defense forces were trying to
achieve with this operation?
Leila: There was a question or
why right now, and there has
been a huge increase in violence
this year.
More than 150 Palestinians dead
in the violence, 25 Israelis,
that is above uptick.
Prime minister of Nick -- prime
minister Denny who does have to
appease --
that is an argument why right
now.
Originally the idf said going
and they were looking for
suspected shooters who had been
trying to stage attacks against
the Israeli public and had
hidden.
Those people were not found.
They had been warned that they
were coming and were longgone.
The 12 people who did die, the
Israelis say they were
militants, locals say they were
civilians.
In a place where young men often
say they have to take up arms to
protect their homes from
constant military incursions by
the Israeli military, it is
difficult to tell who they were,
but certainly not the high-level
people were looking for.
The idf did say they had found a
huge cache of things while
looking.
They had found guns, explosive
devices, they had broken down
operations.
So they are saying that there
has been extremely successful,
this raid.
This was a huge military
operation for a very small place
with several thousand people
living there.
They put in 1000 troops on the
ground, they used 15 helicopter
gunships, using airstrikes,
shelling, drones.
So really, to attack people in
that sort of tightly compacted
space where there are a lot of
women and children, incredibly
difficult to isolate you are
attacking and exactly who you
are trying to avoid they feel
that was successful.
There has been a lot of
criticism that it there was far
too much military use against
civilians.
Amna: All of this raises
concerns about escalating
violence, even further
retaliation maybe for this
military operation.
The big question is what happens
now?
Leila: Thus far the idf said
this is the end of this
particular operation.
Today people were focusing on
trying to get back into their
homes and rebuild them.
But there is a huge amount of
anger and it is really
simmering.
Palestinians now feel they have
no representation because they
believe the Palestinian
authority which governs these
areas is not doing anything for
them and is almost complicit in
working with the Israeli
authorities.
So moving forward, very
difficult to say whether or not
there will be more violence,
particularly as we are seeing
even more settlements which are
internationally illegal being
set up around jenin.
This could lead to more
tensions.
Amna: Special correspondent
Leila molana-allen joining us
tonight.
Leila, good to see you.
Leila: Thank you.