Altering Demography’: Israel Bars Displaced Palestinians from Returning to Their West Bank Homes

PALESTINE ISRAEL GAZA GENOCIDE, 29 Dec 2025

Jews for Justice for Palestinians - TRANSCEND Media Service

A displaced Palestinian holds up a flag during a protest calling to return to their houses in the Nur Shams refugee camp, Tulkarem, 15 Dec 2025

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from refugee camps in West Bank cities over the past year. The IDF continues to raze buildings, saying it does so for ‘operational reasons’; residents say, ‘There’s no explanation for the destruction of buildings and homes, except that it is collective punishment.’

18 Dec 2025 – Jack Khoury reports in Haaretz on 17 December 2025:

Palestinian Authority officials said Israel is preventing the return of thousands of displaced families to refugee camps in the West Bank in an attempt to “eliminate” the refugee issue, disputing Israeli claims that the nearly year-long displacement stems from security concerns.

Regional governors say security needs do not justify the extent of the destruction, especially given that entire camps have been emptied of their residents. They estimate that the goal is “to alter the geographic and demographic reality”of the camps and deal a blow against the refugees’ right of return.

The Israeli army began a wide-ranging operation in the West Bank last January with the declared goal of ensuring freedom of action across wide areas of the northern West Bank, destroying terror infrastructure and “ticking time bombs.”

Over the course of the operation, dubbed Iron Wall, tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in the Tulkarm, Nur al-Shams and Jenin refugee camps. In the meantime, the army has been razing many buildings in the camps, a process that continues even a year after the displacement.

In recent days, the IDF announced plans to destroy 25 residential buildings in the Nur al-Shams camp, including some multi-story structures. Some of the buildings lie outside the official boundaries of the camp.

The military issued a statement in response to Haaretz’s request for comment, saying that the demolitions are being conducted under orders from the head of the IDF’s Central Command, Avi Bluth, “due to clear and necessary operational needs.”

It said that in the past month, it had found “ammunition, arms and explosive devices that serve terror organizations” in the camps, and that the Civil Administration, Israel’s governing body in the West Bank, had “accordingly informed a number of Nur al-Shams residents that the IDF intended to raze buildings inside the camp. Residents were given the chance to remove their possessions.”

The army added that “the decision to demolish the buildings was made after serious consideration, while limiting the extent of the demolitions to the necessary minimum after taking into consideration other alternatives.”

Residents told Haaretz that earlier this week, Israeli forces dispersed protests by refugees at Nur al-Shams against the planned demolitions. Local sources say troops closed off access to the camp, preventing displaced residents from approaching to continue their protest. Soldiers even raised the Israeli flag in a manner that was perceived as a deliberate provocation.

Abu Anas, who was displaced from his home in the camp last February, argues that the Israeli operations and demolitions have gone far beyond the fight against terror. He says it has been several months since any armed men were seen in the area.

“There’s no explanation for the damage and destruction of buildings and homes, except that it is collective punishment,” he adds.

According to Tulkarm Governor Abdallah Kamil, about 22,000 residents have been evacuated from refugee camps in the area, 9,000 of them from Nur al-Shams.

Residents of Nur al-Shams evacuate their homes, February 2025

Kamil told Haaretz that 1,514 families from the camp had lost their homes entirely, while the homes of another approximately 2,200 were partially damaged. However, he added, most of the damaged homes are no longer habitable.

The camps now lack critical infrastructure, making it impossible for the residents to return, the governor said. “If a decision isn’t taken to rebuild infrastructure from scratch, including the electrical, water and sewage networks, there will be no way to return the thousands of displaced people who are residing in various places – either in Tulkarm itself or nearby villages.”

He added that “there’s no doubt that this is an intentional policy by the Israeli government, the goal of which is to eliminate the camps and prevent the displaced from returning to their land.”

Kamil said that the planned demolitions are “an attempt to exert pressure on the Palestinian Authority and the refugee camps and force them to make political concessions and comply with Israeli demands.”

He noted that four months ago, Israel officially notified the PA and international bodies that its operation in the Nur al-Shams had been completed, and even proposed a pilot plan to return it to PA control under certain conditions.

Kamil described Israel’s proposed conditions as “difficult,” with a major sticking point being an end to cooperation with UNRWA, a move he said is opposed by camp residents, local authorities and the PA. “This is an unacceptable position, both from a national and practical perspective.”

According to the governor, UNRWA plays a critical role in the lives of the tens of thousands of refugees in the West Bank, including in the north. Kamil said Palestinian opposition to the conditions has led to further steps by Israel, including attacks by settlers and increased pressure on ordinary Palestinians.

The situation is similar in the Jenin refugee camp. Kamal Abu al-Rub, governor of the Jenin Governate, told Haaretz that since the beginning of the IDF operation last January, approximately 22,000 people have been evacuated – around 18,000 of them camp residents and 4,000 from adjacent areas. He estimates some 800 buildings have been demolished, about 35 to 40 percent of all structures in the camp.

The governor said that even if the residents were allowed to return, it would be a long and complicated process. Many buildings are at risk of collapsing, requiring Palestinian security forces to conduct security checks and engineering evaluations.

“This is a very painful issue,” he said. According to him, thousands of families have been living for months in complete uncertainty, with no clear prospect of returning, scattered across the city of Jenin and surrounding villages, unable to go back.

Life in the camps, meanwhile, has been frozen in time since the operation began. Families whose homes have been destroyed or made uninhabitable have been forced to find temporary accommodation in rented apartments, nearby villages and in the homes of relatives. Many of the displaced are living in difficult conditions, lacking financial security and with limited access to education and healthcare. Many have lost hope.

“The whole world is looking at Gaza, where nothing good is happening either,” said Abu Ahmed, who was displaced from the Jenin refugee camp. “We’re not at all on the map at all. No one is looking at what’s happening to us.”

In the Nur al-Shams camp alone, at least 1,000 housing units have been completely destroyed, in what is seen as an attempt to eliminate the camp entirely.

Figures gathered locally put the number of families suffering prolonged displacement at around 1,900 families from Tulkarm and Nur al-Shams. For them, displacement has become a daily struggle for identity, the right of return, and basic survival.

“This is a serious violation of international law, with serious humanitarian and political consequences,” said Abu al-Rub from Tulkarm.

In other West Bank camps, such as the Al-Far’ah camp in the Tubas district and in refugee camps in the Nablus area, Israeli forces regularly conduct raids and operations.

An Israeli soldier frisks a Palestinian man in Nur al-Shams, Wednesday. Across the West Bank, the IDF regularly conducts raids and operations. Credit: Majdi Mohammed/AP
While there have been cases in which residents were temporarily removed from their homes for periods ranging from several hours to two days, they were later allowed to return. As a result, the scale of destruction is smaller than that seen in the Jenin and Tulkarm camps.

UNRWA officials have warned of the long-term consequences of the demolition policy. Roland Friedrich, director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank, said that about 48 percent of all homes in Nur al-Shams have been damaged or destroyed over the past year.

According to Friedrich, the pattern of the demolitions shows that they are aimed at establishing long-term control and permanently changing the nature of the camps in the northern West Bank.

He argued that the policy will not increase security, and warned that the displacement of tens of thousands of refugees could become a permanent reality.

The IDF said in response that “the camps serve as significant centers of terrorist activity within densely populated areas” and that the army “continues to operate to shape the area in order to prevent militants from reestablishing themselves in the camps.”

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Jews for Justice for Palestinians is a network of Jews who are British or live in Britain, practising and secular, Zionist or not. We oppose Israeli policies that undermine the livelihoods, human, civil and political rights of the Palestinian people. We support the right of Israelis to live in freedom and security within Israel’s 1967 borders. We work to build worldwide Jewish opposition to the Israeli Occupation, with like-minded groups around the world and are a founding member of European Jews for a Just Peace, a federation of Jewish groups in ten European countries.

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