Human Rights Watch said in a report on Thursday that the Israeli military’s forced displacement of Palestinians in three refugee camps in the northern Israeli-occupied West Bank amounts to “ethnic cleansing” and “war crimes.”
The IDF began a major military offensive in the northern West Bank in January 2025, dubbed “Operation Iron Wall,” which began after a temporary Gaza ceasefire deal was reached. The IDF quickly displaced tens of thousands of residents of the Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams refugee camps, and began destroying many of their homes.
At the time, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Palestinians wouldn’t be able to return, and he has kept that promise. The HRW said that the approximately 32,000 people who have been forcibly removed from the camps have been unable to return.
“Since the raids and forced displacement, Israeli authorities have repeatedly and uniformly denied camp residents the right to return to the camps, even though there are no active military operations taking place in the vicinity,” the report said. “Israeli soldiers have fired upon people trying to reach their homes, while only very few whose homes have been slated for demolition have been permitted a short window to return to collect essential belongings.”
Within the first six months of Operation Iron Wall, the Israeli military demolished at least 850 homes and other buildings across the three camps. “With global attention focused on Gaza, Israeli forces have carried out war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank that should be investigated and prosecuted,” said Nadia Hardman, senior refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Palestinians who lived in the camps described being forced to leave their homes. “At 6 am, the Israeli military started shooting at our house wall, and at 7:30 am, a drone smashed through one of the windows, and the kids started crying. Then an Israeli soldier told my brother who was living on the first floor to gather everyone in the building on the first floor. All of the Israeli soldiers were holding weapons, and there were more than 100 of them there throughout the building,” Nour H., a 36-year-old mother of five from the Nur Shams camp, told HRW.
Nour H. said she and her relatives waited in one room for about 11 hours under the instruction of the IDF before they were told to leave. “I asked the soldiers where we should go and they said to the east, and they told us if you go to the left or to the right you will be targeted by snipers who are in high places around the area. When we left, there was a drone above us and it followed us from Malabe neighborhood to Ghazal mall, all the way,” she said.
