Nablus, occupied West Bank – Islam Madani says families and youth from the Askar refugee camp once gathered under olive trees on the slopes of Tel Askar, a mountainous area in the northern occupied West Bank that is home to the camp.
“But most of them won’t go anymore because the soldiers shoot a lot of people there,” the 32-year-old father of two told Al Jazeera.
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Amjad Refaee, director of the Askar Social Development Center, says memories of those killed by Israeli soldiers haunt one of the camp’s only green spaces where children can play.
The military has killed three teenagers there and maimed many more since October 7, 2023, when Hamas led an attack on Israel and Israel began its genocidal war in Gaza.
Soldiers no longer fire rubber bullets or aim below the waist, “they shoot to kill or cause disability,” Refaee told Al Jazeera.
“For them we are animals,” he added. “They terrorize us, kill our young people in cold blood and keep us here in a prison.”
People in the countryside say Tel Askar has become the entry point used by invading Israeli soldiers who infiltrate the countryside’s narrow, ramshackle streets, often through the illegal Elon Moreh settlement that looms over eastern Nablus.
It was on the hill where soldiers shot 18-year-old Amir Othman last January, leaving him with a disability. The shooting occurred almost in the exact spot where the army killed his childhood friend, Mohammed Abu Haneen, just over a year earlier. He was 18 years old.
‘I asked my uncle to shoot me’
Amir was a promising footballer and dancer until Israeli soldiers shot him in the leg last January as a convoy of jeeps passed through Tel Askar.
She had traveled extensively performing Dabke, a traditional Palestinian line dance.
Amir, now an aspiring nurse, was carrying his wounded friend, also shot by soldiers, to safety when he was hit by a bullet.
“My kneecap and femur were shattered,” he told Al Jazeera.
“I couldn’t feel my leg anymore, so I thought I had lost it.
“The blood felt like boiling water pouring out of my leg.”
Soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching Amir as he lay bleeding. Health officials and international organizations say that has happened hundreds of times since Oct. 7, when Israel stepped up raids against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, particularly in refugee camps.
Amir eventually underwent four operations to help him walk again. He spent four months bedridden and doctors tell him his mobility will never return to normal.
“When I woke up from the first surgery, I asked my uncle to shoot me, because I thought it would be better,” he added.
“But I’m learning to accept the situation and continue living.”
Amir said he still dreams of touring, dancing Dabke and running with his friends. “But none of that is possible now,” he said.
The children of refugees
At least 13 Palestinians have been killed in Askar since Israel’s attack on the occupied West Bank intensified after October 7, according to Palestinian monitoring groups. Many others have been shot during the army’s incessant raids.
At least 157 children have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since 2024, according to data collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine.
Israel denies attacking children and says its military raids are necessary for security reasons and to suppress Palestinian fighters.
Askar is among the most densely populated of the 19 refugee camps in the occupied West Bank. It is home to 24,000 people, crammed into an area roughly the size of 17 football fields.
It is plagued by unemployment and many residents live in poverty and suffer from “crowded living conditions,” according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Refugee camps were originally makeshift tent communities intended to provide temporary shelter to hundreds of thousands of refugees forcibly expelled from historic Palestine in the Nakba of 1948, when the State of Israel was established.
But as decades passed and hopes of refugees returning home faded, the camps became urbanized and overcrowded areas.
Amir sat in the camp’s newly created emergency health center with his friend Yamen Habron, 17, and Islam Madani, 32. They were also shot by the Israeli army in the past three years, which left them disabled.
The trio insisted that no one, no matter their age, is safe when the military raids the fields. They took note of the case of Iyad Shalakhti, 14, shot dead by soldiers on July 9, 2025 in Tel Askar.
‘No security’
Islam Madani said he prohibits his children – like many other parents – from playing outdoors in the refugee camp. His four-year-old son energetically patrolled the meeting room where Al Jazeera spoke with his father.
The young man cries uncontrollably every time the soldiers enter the camp because he knows what the soldiers did to his father.
A sniper shot him at 7:30 a.m. on January 9, 2024 as he rushed to clock in at the factory where he worked.
“I lost a lot of blood,” he said. “The paramedic did everything he could to keep me conscious, in case I didn’t wake up.”
He recovered from multiple major surgeries. The shot, he says, went through the back of his knee and out the front, leaving gruesome scars.
He said the army now invades at any time of the day and does not distinguish between those fighting against the Israeli occupation and peaceful, unarmed residents.
“Anyone can get shot,” he said. “There’s no security. I was just walking to work.”
Islam no longer works in the factory and cannot stand for long before the pain overwhelms him.
He has been seeing a psychologist to help him process what he considers the shame of not being able to support his family since he was shot and left without a job.
“I’ve become more aggressive, angry and impulsive since I was shot,” he said. “I pray to God that the best is yet to come.”
Deliberate?
Yamen left school at a very young age to support his struggling family.
The shy teenager was shot twice in the side by the soldiers who surrounded him as he arrived at the door of his house after returning from the gym. One bullet lodged in his hip and the other pierced his side.
He told Al Jazeera that all he could remember was his father and brother desperately trying to keep him conscious while waiting for the ambulance, which was being blocked by army jeeps.
“All I could remember was my mother crying,” she said.
He spent 14 days in intensive care and it took doctors two days to remove the shrapnel from the bullet. Now he walks with a limp.
The director of the center, Amjad Refaee, has known Islam, Amir and Yamen all his life. He says none of them have been active in Palestinian fighting groups, as many are in refugee camps.
As they talked about their future, the young men discussed whether the soldiers intended to kill them or whether they intended to deliberately leave them disabled, to deepen the misery of their lives in the countryside.
“Askar’s children realize the occupation,” Refaee said. “They don’t have playgrounds. They can only play soccer in the street. Many are forced to work from a very young age.”
Refaee said his purpose is to keep young people alive by giving them hope, because they are “the future of the country.” “Otherwise we will disappear,” he added. “Which is what Israel wants.”
