Israeli occupation forces, on Monday morning, began a wide military operation in the town of Kafr Aqab and around Qalandia camp north of Jerusalem, which included raids, demolitions of buildings, and assaults on camp residents.
Snipers from the occupation army were positioned on the roofs of the buildings overlooking the airport road in Kafr Aqab, while the forces evacuated the headquarters of the popular committee at Qalandia camp and took it as a military position, according to Al Jazeera.
The raid occurred during the peak time when students were heading to their schools, causing panic and confusion among the residents and prompting educational institutions to suspend classes to ensure the safety of children.
Local media also reported that the occupation forces fired gas bombs, sound grenades, and live and rubber bullets at the residents during the operation.
According to data from the Jerusalem governorate, since the early morning hours, occupation forces began demolishing Palestinian structures in Kafr Aqab under the pretext of unlicensed building, as part of an operation described as targeting the enhancement of Israeli control along the separation wall.
The data indicated that the occupation forces raided several residential buildings and evacuated some of them forcibly, while snipers and soldiers spread out on the balconies and rooftops of high buildings.
The occupation forces also issued violations to a large number of Palestinian vehicles and deliberately damaged some of them, in what the governorate described as a policy of collective punishment imposed on the residents of the area.
The incursion involved widespread deployment of occupation forces on Jerusalem Street, Institute Street, and Airport Road, where occupation forces removed sections of the separation wall at the end of Airport Road to facilitate the entry of dozens of military vehicles stationed around the former Jerusalem International Airport, along with the incursion of dozens of infantry soldiers into the site.
Imposing New Realities
From his part, the director of the Jerusalem governorate office in Qalandia camp, Zakaria Viala, said that Israeli forces stormed the governorate's office in the camp in the morning, ordered those inside to leave the place before taking the building as a temporary positioning point, and escalated to the rooftops to establish sniper positions.
He mentioned the difficulty of field access to the area during the operation, confirming that there's still no exact tally of the structures that were demolished or received demolition orders.
He added that this campaign targets the extension of Airport Road and the surrounding area of the camp within a distance of 700m, as part of an effort to impose new field realities, pointing to claims about the intentions of the Israeli occupation authorities to develop public and recreational facilities in the spaces between Airport Road and the wall, while residents of the area affirm that part of the targeted buildings have been established for years alongside the separation wall.
