LONDON, 24 March. - (ANA) -  A British charity-funded health centre for children with disability ABCD Bethlehem in Nur Shams refugee camp damaged by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in major raid.

 

Nur Shams Refugee Camp, south of Jenin in the West Bank was raided by the IDF on Wednesday 3 January 2024, causing considerable damage to over 50 homes and to the ABCD-funded centre for children with disability.

 

The charity’s project manager, Firas Sarhan was able to call Nehayah, the Centre’s Manager to speak to her to provide a live interpretation of her update on the horrendous destruction that has taken place over a 40-hour raid of the Camp.

 

‘They ransacked the building, destroying equipment, damaging all the rooms including the new sensory room,’ Nehayah reported today. Essential paperwork for the 250 children who receive treatment at the centre was also destroyed, with IDF also taking food and winter clothing for children, the ink from the printer and throwing walking frames, mattresses and beds out on the street. Windows were peppered with shots and, although snipers took positions on the building’s rooftops, fortunately no one was injured. Nehayah’s house was also searched and partly destroyed. She continues; ‘Thank God no one was injured at the Centre. There is no fresh food and nowhere for people to go, ’she added. ‘I helped to build the Centre from zero, my own soul has been broken.’

 

Since 7th October more than 400 men, women and children have been arrested in Nur Shams alone. The economy there has collapsed, unemployment exponentially increased, businesses and homes destroyed, families displaced, movement and supplies of food made virtually impossible. Virtually every house has been damaged by raids, and many of those affected have been the most vulnerable children and adults, whose difficult lives have now been rendered all the more miserable by having to live in the streets or the ruins of their homes. ‘It is the worst since 1967,’ Nehayah says of the violence against Palestinians and the destruction in Nur Shams.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/24 March 2024 - - -