By Andrew Hammond JENIN, West Bank, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Israel's three-week assault on the Gaza Strip brought back painful memories for residents of the West Bank town of Jenin. Its refugee camp was the scene of Israel's last major military action in the Palestinian territories before Gaza, where around 1,300 Palestinians were killed in a land, air and sea operation to crush Hamas militants firing rockets into southern Israel. The 2002 offensive in Jenin, long a militant bastion, came at the height of the last Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. Some 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers died in the campaign that flattened an entire neighbourhood. The quarter has been rebuilt with money from the United Arab Emirates, but with memories of the destruction still raw there is little public enthusiasm for Hamas' calls for action against Israeli occupation. "The Israelis come in their planes and kill everyone, civilian or non-civilian," said Mohammed Obeid, standing by a kiosk in the empty streets of the rebuilt camp of 13,000 people. "I just want to make a living." Faded Islamic Jihad posters festoon the walls of many buildings, a reminder of the impoverished and religiously conservative camp's previous readiness to fight. Security forces of U.S.-backed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas seized hundreds of suspected militants last year to ensure the restive city did not return to violence after Islamist group Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. During the Gaza war, Palestinian police suppressed expressions of support for Hamas in the West Bank. Hundreds of its supporters were detained last year in the Jenin area, an agricultural region of 300,000 people. "RESISTANCE" "Resistance", as Palestinians call it, has become a sensitive word. "There is no 'resistance' here. The Palestinian Authority has put its foot down," said Abu Bassem, a man in his 70s who lost two sons during the Jenin fighting. To wean youth away from militancy, a new theatre and drama school has been set up with U.N. and Swedish money. There are also plans to reopen the town cinema, which has been closed since the first uprising in 1987. "People here wanted to martyr themselves, but now they're saying 'why should I kill myself while the Israeli soldier lives?'," said Iyad Hourani, a young actor at the school. "We realise we can't go back to arms. We need a cultural Intifada (uprising). We can promote our point through theatre, poetry and music." But he said many young people were impressed by Hamas, which has emerged from the Gaza carnage claiming victory and attacking Abbas' policy of negotiations as useless. Abbas hopes peace talks with Israel will lead to an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Many are sceptical about the negotiations and say there could be another uprising if peace talks go nowhere. "They (Israelis) don't want a resolution at all," said one elderly man in anger. "They want to get us out of here so they can take all of Palestine." (Editing by Katie Nguyen)
An Israeli soldier looks on from behind a Palestinian flag during a demonstration against Israel's controversial separation barrier in the West Bank village of Ma'asarah, near Bethlehem January 30, 2009. REUTERS/Nayef ...
Refugees & displacement
