Israel forces tens of thousands of Palestinians out of West Bank refugee camps

Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have been forced to leave their homes because a weeks-long Israeli offensive has demolished houses and torn up vital infrastructure in the heavily built up townships, the Palestinian authorities have said.

Reuters reported that Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on 21 January, deploying hundreds of troops and bulldozers that demolished houses and dug up roads, driving almost all of the camp’s residents out.

“We don’t know what’s going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up,” said Mohammed Al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee.

The operation, which Israel says is aimed at thwarting Iran-backed militant groups in the West Bank, has since been extended to other camps, notably the Tulkarm refugee camp and the nearby Nur Shams camp, both of which have also been devastated.

The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who were driven from their homes in the 1948 Nakba when Israel was created in Palestine, have long been major centres for legitimate resistance against Israel’s brutal and illegal military occupation. They have been raided repeatedly by the Israeli military but the current operation, which began even as a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza, has been on an unusually large scale.

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According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, around 17,000 people have now left Jenin refugee camp, leaving the site almost completely deserted. In Nur Shams 6,000 people, or about two thirds of the total, have left, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarm camp.

“The ones who are left are trapped,” said Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee. “The Civil Defence, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces took them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp.”

The Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cut off water and power, but the military has denied forcing residents to leave their homes.

“People obviously have the possibility to move or go where they want, if they will,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters. “But if they don’t, they’re allowed to stay.”

The operation began as Israel moved to ban the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, from its headquarters in East Jerusalem and cut it off from any contact with Israeli officials. The ban, which took effect at the end of January, has hit UNRWA’s work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides aid and essential healthcare and education services for millions of Palestinians in the refugee camps.

Israel has accused UNRWA of cooperating with Hamas and alleged that UNRWA workers took part in the Hamas-led cross-border incursion in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in response to which Israel started its genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza. A UN investigation concluded that seven staff members “may” have taken part in the incursion. UNRWA employs around 30,000 people, most of them Palestinians.

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