Israel killed 20 Palestinians in an airstrike on Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern West Bank late on Thursday, October 3, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported. Several children and an entire family were among the dead, as the strike targeted a three-floor residential building in the center of the camp.
The strike, conducted with an Israeli fighter jet using a heavy missile, was the first of its kind in over 20 years. The Israeli army and intelligence said in a joint statement that the strike targeted Zahi Oufi, described as a local “Hamas commander” who was killed in the strike. Residents in Tulkarem told Mondoweiss that the targeted location was a local cafe full of civilians, where Oufi was at the time. The cafe was on the ground floor of a residential building that housed several civilian apartments in the overcrowded refugee camp.
“I was in the camp just half an hour before the strike, playing billiards with some young men from the camp,” a resident of the camp who preferred to remain unnamed told Mondoweiss. “It was about 100 meters away from the place that was struck.”
The camp resident detailed the events leading up to the strike and how it subsequently unfolded. “One of the guys who was playing with me was a teenager named Arkan Bilal. He left to buy something and never came back,” he explained. “I left to go visit my wife’s family in the city [of Tulkarem], and on my way, I walked by the [targeted] cafe and saw several men, including elderly........