Kept awake late into the night by heat and mosquitoes, then the thud of Apache helicopters over-flying Nablus and the sound of missile strikes in the distance. “Fi harb l-leyle fi Nablis” (There is a war tonight in Nablus) is how one friend described the scene. For hours the sound of helicopters and unmanned drones could be heard above. Occasionally the night-sky would be lit-up by a flash and moments later an explosion would be heard. This is the sound of 21st century nocturnal terror that imposes itself on Colombian jungles, Iraqi cities and Palestinian refugee camps. PMRS medical personnel informed us today that at least two tanks, several Apaches and at least a dozen jeeps where deployed to Sakin Street just north of the El-Ein Refugee Camp.

News came in of one Israeli commando and two Palestinians killed. The Israeli was Captain Moran Vardi, a member of a Navy Seals commando unit known as Shayetet 13, three other members of this unit where also injured – which triggered the heavy Israeli military response and the shooting of missiles into a crowded civilian area. In the morning the death toll on the Palestinian side had reached four. Two PFLP militants, including Yamen Faraj the active leader of the Abu Ali Mustafa Martyr Brigades in Nablus and Amjad , as well as two civilian casualties: Professor Khaled Salah, a professor at An-Najah National University and his 16 year old son Mohamed. Amjad was killed in the clashes, while Yamen was executed by soldiers while trying to crawl out of his hiding spot after being injured in the legs. The male members of the Salah family where killed after the two PFLP militants had been killed as they where at their window trying to communicate with the soldiers that where evacuating people from the building.

On Tuesday morning there was again a huge demonstration/jenazi for the dead, with thousands in attendance. On the way to the hospital we could see tanks and jeeps pulling out of the scene of last nights clashes, heading towards Huwwara military base. During the funeral the familiar rituals: fighters firing into the sky, banners of the factions, and the corpses of the martyrs being carried from the morgue in Rafidia to resting places in the Eastern Cemetery, prayer and anger punctuated with two loud explosions signaling the demolition of a home by the Israeli military where last nights clashes had occurred. The mood on the streets is increasingly angry, hostile and paranoid. Too many top ranking local leaders have been knocked off, and people are privately talking again about information and intelligence sharing between the Israeli military and parts of the Palestinian security apparatus. I was told by friends to leave the demonstration because the mood on the street was increasingly becoming hostile to outsiders. The influx of new internationals for summer volunteer positions at a time of increased Israeli violence has raised more than a few suspicions.

Last night in Balata the Israeli military returned at around 6 pm. We got the news as we where watching the youth from the Warhsa Center practicing a dabke routine they will be performing throughout the city next week. Soon I find myself in the streets, observing clashes between stone-throwing youth and the military. Some clashes between fighters and the soldiers ensued and the military pulled out at around 9 pm. Then at 10:30 pm another explosion. Wael Areshi, a member of the Al-Aqsa Brigades was killed in his car by a booby-trapped M16 that exploded as he entered his car, the device probably rigged by a collaborator. Calls from the Old City informed us simultaneously that the military had reinvaded that sector as well. Outside angry demonstrations could be heard from the streets of the camp and throughout the night military jeeps and APCs carried out operations in the camp, undertaking house-to-house searches and occupying several houses. This morning Israeli snipers extra-judicially executed Issam Mahamid, another Al-Aqsa activist, with several shots the head and chest near the main mosque in the camp. Pools of blood and parts of his brain left behind on the ground as another crowd formed around the camps latest victim.