The Israelis have withdrawn from the Jenin refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank and a calm has returned, but the militants who were targeted remain defiant. 

We were taken to meet a fighter from Al Qassam Brigades, one of the main fighting forces in the camps.

And he claims although it was the biggest military operation here in two decades the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) achieved nothing.

“We expected them to target our positions,” he said.

“But we didn’t think it would be with so many airstrikes. They fired more than 50 rockets. We thought they would only hit our positions, but they didn’t target us as much as civilian areas.

“They only arrested one fighter. And the weapons they took were mostly for civilians not military.

“Our weapons are still with us, the resistance is still here and we didn’t lose anything.”

The IDF has acknowledged civilian injuries, but said its raid was a “counter-terrorism” operation.

Pictures are emerging from the Palestinian side, which show the intensity of the fighting. Armed militants wielding automatic weapons clash on the streets with Israeli soldiers.

It is why Israel says it needed to act to “uproot terrorist activity” and restore security.

But questions do persist about how effective the raid has been.

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The information war is in full swing and the militant groups have been quick to publish video on social media of a bomb factory which they claim is still producing dozens of homemade explosives.

At Friday prayers there’s an expectation that there will be more raids to come – Israel claims it will continue its operations as long as necessary, but support for the militant groups is unlikely to be broken.

One woman tells me that what happened over the last few days was a triumph for the resistance.

She waves her hands in the air defiantly as she speaks.

“We emerged victorious! We feel victorious,” she said.

Read more:
Why Israel launched one of its largest operations in years
Israeli troops complete withdrawal from Jenin refugee camp
Israel hopes its West Bank raid will prevent terror attacks but previous operations have failed to calm tensions

“All of these soldiers, and all of this shooting and we emerged victorious. And all of those who left their homes came back.”

A man standing by her also wants to deliver a message.

“Thank God, people in the camp’s spirits are high they’re standing firm. All the devastation you see people have got used to,” he said.

“What has the occupation achieved? Have you come here to fight the ground and destroy the infrastructure? You’ve come here to smash and break whilst people are sheltering in their homes. Why?”

The situation in Jenin remains extremely tense – another round of violence may not be far away.

With no political solution on the horizon and a three decades old peace process effectively dead there is little optimism but huge amounts of frustration.

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