By Diana Khwaelid — Northern West Bank — 8th May 2025
The Israeli occupation forces continue their aggression on the city of Tulkarm and its camp for the 102nd consecutive day, and for the 89th day on the Nur Shams camp East of the city with a continuous escalation of raids, inspections, and demolition of homes and infrastructure.
This afternoon, May 8th, I stood on one of the elevated areas overlooking the Nur Shams refugee camp. This area, called Al-Ahraash, is situated in the city of Tulkarem in the north of the West Bank.
The Israeli military operation there started in mid-January of this year and is currently ongoing. It is part of what Israel has termed the ‘Operation Protective Fence,’ which focuses on the camps in the northern West Bank, especially the Tulkarem, Nur Shams and Jenin camps. This is the most violent and destructive operation since the Second Intifada in 2002.
It is in this context that a notification of the decision to demolish 48 houses in Nur Shams camp and 58 houses in Tulkarm refugee camp was recently issued by the Israeli military. Today, dozens of Palestinians displaced from Nur Shams camp — women, children, youth, men —were sitting around me, anxiously and painfully waiting for the decisive moment of demolition of their homes or that of their relatives, with bulldozers and other military machines. There is little they can do to prevent the destruction of the home where they grew up before their very eyes.
The Israeli occupation forces granted as little as two hours to the Palestinian inhabitants to leave their homes after receiving the demolition notice. We have, however, now been waiting for three hours, during which we have monitored the movement of the occupation forces on the main street of the Nur Shams refugee camp, including heavy bulldozers.
The continuation of the Israeli operation on the camps in the northern West Bank led to the displacement of about 4,200 families from the Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps and the destruction of 400 Palestinian homes completely and 2,573 homes partially, in addition to blocking home entrances with heavy fences.
While Israel as always claims the ‘Operation Protective Fence’ is fighting terrorism, it is itself an operation to terrorise all Palestinians in the West Bank. False arguments continue to be pushed and one crime after another are committed by Israel in all of Palestine, in the absence of international laws criminalising terrorism and war against civilians, who are now paying the price in both Gaza and the West Bank.
It is possible that Israel is planning to destroy the camps entirely, as suggested by the fact that it has targeted all UNRWA offices in the West Bank camps, especially in Jerusalem. This completely contradicts their claims of counterterrorism operations.
Through this process, Israel is also trying to destroy the social and political fabric in Palestine. The residents of the camp are separated into separate cantons and the population composition is dismantled. This risks turning the refugee camps into ordinary residential neighbourhoods under heavy surveillance which includes security guards and checkpoints. There will soon be no refugee camps left.
This is a serious problem, since the denomination of Palestinian refugees as such is essential as evidence of the displacement of Palestinians in the 1948 Nakba and the ongoing Israeli occupation.