Palestinians fear the continuation of the Israeli operation in the northern West Bank; Israeli plans are underway.
More than a month since the Israeli military started its “Operation Iron Wall” in the northern West Bank including the Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams Camps (21 January; two days after the Gaza “ceasefire” took effect), Israel has killed at least 60 Palestinians, arrested around 365 displaced over 40,000, and destroyed scores of homes and properties in the occupied West Bank.
Photo: Nur Shams Camp in the past week
On Sunday, Israel deployed tanks in the West Bank for the first time in more than 20 years. Now, Defense Minister Israel Katz has said, the army will remain in some refugee camps “for the next year” to ensure that residents cannot return.
Forced Displacement
Among Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from camps in the northern West Bank, under the threat of weapon fire, many came out and took nothing, and some of them made the wrenching decision to demolish their homes in the camps.
Photo: Displaced people take their belongings away before the demolition
The displaced Palestinians stated that they would return to the camp, and if their homes were lost or demolished, they would rebuild their homes, even if it was necessary to put up a tent and live in that. Palestinians in the camps are aware of Israel’s grand plans to eliminate refugee camps in the West Bank, specifically in the northern bank. Israel claims that these camps are primarily a factory of the Palestinian resistance, but in fact, Israel’s forces have killed dozens of civilians from camps in the northern West Bank. Unarmed Palestinian civilians who did nothing. Their only fault is that they grew up in the camp; they are Palestinians.
Psychological Violence and Show of Force
In a scene that has been absent for more than two decades since the end of the so-called second Palestinian intifada in 2005, Israeli tanks penetrated the city of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank in the neighborhood of “Jabriyat”, which overlooks the empty refugee camp after the Israeli army blew up residential blocks. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes in what is the largest displacement since the 1967 war.
Photo: Demolition of houses in Nur Shams Camp
Israel announced last Sunday that it had expelled tens of thousands of Palestinians from the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps, and Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said that he had instructed Israeli forces to prepare for a long stay of up to a year in the evacuated camps, adding that “there is no return for those who lived there”.
Photo: A sick and elderly woman who was displaced
Imposing the Status Quo Militarily, Not by Negotiation
The Palestinian Authority says that one of the most dangerous of the goals of the Israeli military operation is the displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, which occurs simultaneously with the bulldozing and construction of roads in large areas of the central bank; this process has already occurred with the Netzarim site, which had been established by various Palestinian geographic and military groups in the central Gaza Strip.
The question remains, whether Israel will succeed in implementing its military plans in the West Bank in general, and in the West Bank camps in particular.
Will the Palestinians survive despite all the challenges imposed by Israel?
Photo: A Palestinian man checks his house while standing amidst the rubble
March 8, 2025, Masafer Yatta – Alex Chabbott (44), a California based US citizen and solidarity activist, was arrested yesterday from Khalet Al-Daba’, in Masafer Yatta, the southern part of the occupied West Bank, and is now under imminent threat of deportation. Masafer Yatta is the setting of Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land”, yet despite this global recognition, Israeli authorities continue their efforts to ethnically cleanse its indigenous population and expel whoever stands in solidarity with them.
Palestinian taken away from Israeli soldier on March 8, Khalet Al-Daba’. Credit local Palestinians.
On the morning of March 8, Israeli settlers arrived with guns and started harassing residents of Khalet Al-Daba’, roaming through the village, invading houses and severely beating Palestinians with clubs. Israeli soldiers and police came to aid the settlers, continuing to abuse the Palestinians. After being attacked, three Palestinians and international activists present were arrested and taken to Kiryat Arba police station.
Alex was questioned on trumped-up suspicions of obstructing a civil servant in a previous incident, which he denies, as well as entering a military firing zone the day of the arrest. Israeli authorities detained him as soon as he arrived in the village, only later explaining it is a closed area. While the others detained together with Alex were released, with one Palestinian requiring medical care at the hospital, the police decided to extend Alex’s arrest. However, due to the lack of any real evidence, Israeli authorities decided not to pursue criminal charges and used the perfectly legal small fruit knife he had in his backpack from earlier in the day as an excuse to single him out for deportation. This is not the first time Israeli authorities use baseless suspicions to arrest and deport solidarity activists.
Over the last few weeks, the village of Khalet Al-Daba’ has been terrorized by occupation forces that rolled in with a convoy of bulldozers and military vehicles, expelled families into the early morning cold and destroyed homes and infrastructure. On February 10, Israeli forces demolished 7 houses, 3 caves and a water cistern. Two weeks later, on February 26, bulldozers returned to Khalet Al-Daba’ to destroy six tents put up as temporary homes to replace the destroyed houses. Some of the families’ homes have been destroyed up to five times in recent years.
In the 1980s, Israeli authorities designated a part of Masafer Yatta as ‘Firing Zone 918’, a close military zone. Since this declaration, residents have been at continuous risk of forced eviction, house demolitions, and forcible transfer. Since October 7, Palestinians have faced escalating settler violence, aided and supported by the Israeli army and police, aiming at accelerating the ethnic cleansing of the area. In the last months, and years, villages have seen weekly demolitions and daily settlers attack towards residents, property and basic infrastructure.
Last July, around 200 settlers launched a coordinated attack in which they destroyed vehicles, burned fruit trees and beat up residents in Khalet Al-Daba’ and Mufagarah. In the past year and half, at least 19 Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank have been forcefully displaced and wiped off the map by Israeli settlers, with the support of the Israeli occupation forces.
Alex was witnessing yet another of these attacks on Khalet Al-Daba’ when Israeli forces arrested him and Palestinian residents. For over two decades, he has been a deeply entrenched activist and community organizer, dedicating himself in struggles to protect the environment and defend land against resource extraction, to show up for indigenous solidarity efforts, to support mutual aid efforts and community resilience, disaster relief, the anti war movement, fights for racial justice, and many more. He has been an active advocate and supporter of Palestine since the early 2000’s when he first learned what was going on. He has worked in land defense and stewardship, and grows a vast garden of food, flowers, and medicinal herbs mostly to give away and share with others. He especially loves to tend to his fruit trees.
“Growing up I learned about the Jewish Holocaust and it was mind boggling that honest people stood by as it happened. Today, Israel is perpetuating a genocide in Gaza, and I don’t want to look back and regret not standing up for what’s right. No one is free when others are oppressed,” Alex wrote.
This all happens under the watch of western countries, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal and must be dismantled, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for the current Israeli prime minister and the previous Israeli defence minister for war crimes. It is to be expected that in the context of the criminal enterprise of the colonisation of Palestine, indigenous Palestinians on their land and human rights defenders who support them, are criminalised.
Palestinians everywhere are facing a genocide and while those in Gaza have endured constant bombardment, West Bank camps are being destroyed in the biggest escalation since the second intifada and communities are facing relentless raids. In this climate, notorious Israeli Minister Itamar Ben Gvir created a special task force to get rid of activists in the West Bank. According to Ben Gvir, the task force was created as a response to some states, including the U.S., sanctioning violent settlers, because international activists were reporting settler violence that they witnessed to their governments. This effort aims to isolate Palestinians from international solidarity, and is part of the ongoing barrage of harassment by Israeli settlers and soldiers towards Palestinians and of human rights activists in the area.
Contact info: palreports@gmail.com
Khalet Al-Daba’ before the homes where demolished. Credit ISM
February 10, home demolition in Khalet Al-Daba’. Credit to local Palestinians.
The rubble left after the home demolitions. Credit to @palestinebrigade on IG.
Israel is carrying out massive military operations to displace residents of camps in the northern West Bank, unprecedented since the Second Intifada. Since the seventh of October, Israeli attacks on West Bank cities, especially in the north, have not stopped. We are talking about the cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, Tubas, Nablus and Qalqilya.
Destruction of Palestinian refugee camps At the end of January, Israel carried out a large scale military operation in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, which has lasted for ten days so far.
Its military operations are based in the Jenin refugee camp, in various city areas, and in some nearby villages. The Jenin camp has become an unfit place for human habitation, dozens of Palestinian houses have been destroyed and bombed, and the neighborhoods and streets of the camp have already been destroyed. Water, electricity pipes and infrastructure have been destroyed.
A residential block and an entire neighbourhood have been completely destroyed due to aerial bombardment.
Did you succeed in transforming the Jenin camp like Jabalia camp in Gaza? This is what senior Israeli officials promised before the start of the recent military operation in the West Bank, especially in the Northern West Bank. The Israeli occupation continues its aggression on Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas, murdering 29 martyrs, dozens of injuries, arrests, demolition of houses and forced displacement. Amid widespread destruction of property and infrastructure.
Entrance to Tulkarem
JENIN Jenin, for the fifteenth day in a row, the occupation continues its aggression against the Jenin city and its camp, which has so far resulted in 25 martyrs, dozens of injuries, arrests, and the demolition of dozens of houses, amid a large displacement process that affected 15 thousand citizens.
Yesterday morning, the occupation army forced residents of the buildings supervising the Jenin camp to evacuate, as several military vehicles were stationed near the buildings demanding evacuation.
Street in Jenin
Residential buildings and apartments are being emptied, forcibly displacing citizens.
The occupation forces in the Jenin camp simultaneously blew up about 20 buildings in the eastern side of the camp, after booby trapping them, which caused damage to some sections of the Jenin government hospital, without injuries being recorded. The occupation continues to push reinforcements to the city of Jenin camp from the Jalama military checkpoint, while its
bulldozers continue to destroy houses in the merge lane, with approximately 15 thousand people now displaced from the Jenin camp the target neighborhood, distributed throughout 39 local community bodies in the Jenin governorate and its towns.
Transfer of an injured person in Tulkarem
TULKAREM For the ninth day in a row, the occupation continues its aggression against the city of Tulkarm and its camp, resulting in the martyrdom of four citizens, amidst extremely difficult humanitarian conditions.
The occupation forces are still pushing more of their vehicles into the city and its camp from the “tasnouz” military camp west of Tulkarm, and deploying infantry patrols in large numbers in the streets, neighborhoods, and the center of the vegetable market, combing and searching between houses and alleys and harassing citizens.
These forces also continue to besiege the martyr Thabit Thabit government and specialized hospitals, obstruct the work of ambulances and their medical crews, and subject them to inspection and field investigation, while they have taken military barracks and places for snipers from the buildings surrounding them.
The occupation forces escalated their violations against citizens in the city and its camp through a series of attacks, which included raiding houses, forcing their owners to flee, vandalizing and
stealing their contents, blowing up and destroying a number of them, in addition to restricting movement, while seizing commercial and residential buildings and turning them into military barracks and places for snipers.
In Tulkarem camp, the occupation forces continue to deploy large numbers of infantry soldiers in all its neighborhoods and alleys, raid houses, force residents to leave them, seize high buildings and turn them into sniper platforms and shoot at Citizens, which led to the injury of a citizen (40 years), shot by an occupation soldiers sniper stationed inside one of these buildings.
House of the martyr Tamer Fugha
Tulkarem camp is living amid this unprecedented continuous escalation, amid difficult humanitarian conditions, after the occupation bulldozers completely and partially destroyed houses and shops, blowing up a number of them and burning others, coinciding with the destruction of infrastructure, which led to the interruption of water, electricity, communications and the internet, making it difficult for specialized crews from the municipality, and others, to repair them because the occupation prevented them from entering the camp. The situation of citizens who are still in their homes ~ the elderly, the sick, women and children has also been aggravated by the acute shortage of food, medical, drinking water, and infant formula.
TUBAS For the third day in a row, the occupation is besieging AL- FARA’ camp and the town of Tamoun south of Tubas, amid arrests, bulldozing of infrastructure and forcing citizens to flee.
Since the beginning of the storming, Israeli Occupation Forces forces have bulldozed the roads and infrastructure leading to the AL-FARA’ camp, in addition to closing all entrances to it with earthen berms and raiding houses in the vicinity of the camp, forcing its residents to be displaced, and turning them into military barracks.
Israeli Occupation Forces also raided the homes of citizens on the outskirts of the town of Tamun, forcibly displacing residents, giving them orders not to return within ten days.
Water pipelines have been destroyed between the Town of Tamun and the village of Atouf, in addition to closing of the road connecting the two areas with earthen berms.
The occupation continues to push military reinforcements to Tamun and the AL-FARA’ camp, while the Israeli reconnaissance aircraft continues to fly intensively in the skies of the governorate.
Military reconnaissance aircraft
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health : the percentage of Palestinian martyrs in the West Bank since the beginning of
this year 2025 has reached 70 martyrs.
38 martyrs in Jenin 15 martyrs in Tubas 5 martyrs in Tulkarem 3 martyrs in Hebron 2 martyrs in Bethlehem 6 martyrs in Nablus 1 martyr in Jerusalem 10 of them are children, 2 of them are women, 2 of them are elderly people.
After a year and two months of suffering, displacement and genocide, the ceasefire heralds great joy on the streets of Palestine. But with Israeli forces stepping up aggression in the West Bank, Palestinians fear the war of annihilation has not ended, only moved.
Ramallah, West Bank — Celebrations bloomed in cities and villages across the West Bank following the start of the ceasefire in Gaza and the liberation 90 women and children imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces. Their release trails the release of three Israeli women held in Gaza, a delay which suggests the occupation will continue to flex its power even as it stands down militarily. The release was watched closely by dozens of Palestinian families and Palestinian and foreign activists, along with news media from around the world.
Celebrating the release of prisoners.
Some ten thousand Palestinians remain imprisoned by the occupation, in addition to 57 Israelis being held in Gaza. This “Flood of the Free” is not the first prisoner exchange deal and it will not be the last as long as so many Palestinians languish in the occupation’s prisons.
Celebration of Palestinian youth
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) teams received the three Israeli prisoners released by the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip. For this purpose, they crossed the Netzarim corridor that divides the Gaza Strip into North and South. The corridor has been a point of tension in the ceasefire talks, as occupation forces want to retain some control over the area, bisecting the strip.
A female freed captive embraces her family
Hamas confirmed on Sunday its commitment to the terms of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, and attributed the delay in handing over the names of the Israeli prisoners who will be released in the first batch to “technical field reasons.” Israeli media reported that a number of buses left Haifa’s “Damon” prison, designated for Palestinian female prisoners, amid tight security measures. Damon is located in the ruins of the Palestinian village of Khirbat Al-Dumun, whose residents were killed or expelled during the Nakba.
Gas bombs fired as Palestinians await the release of prisoners.
Meanwhile, outside Ofer prison in Ramallah, Israeli occupation forces attacked Palestinian families with tear gas as they awaited the release of their loved ones. In Al Fawakeh square in Beitunia, Ramallah, crowds cheered as prisoners were released. The women were greeted by their families and friends with hugs and tears of joy—and grief. Nearly all have lost friends and relatives since the start of the war of annihilation in Gaza on October 7th. For them, release from prison is the beginning, not the end, of a long road towards healing.
“Since October 7, while all eyes are on Gaza where they are destroying everything, the Israelis have seized the highest number of dunams ever here in the West Bank. “In one year they declared more hectares as ‘Israeli land’ than they had ever declared in the past 30 years,” says R., looking at the new outpost rising in front of us in Beit Lid. “If Western states continue to fund and legitimize Israel, maybe they really will try to annex the whole West Bank.” He shakes his head. “In addition to the land they take, you have to count all the roads they block, and the lands you no longer have access to because are close to the new Israeli settlements.” A demand, a silent shout that resonates ever more clearly from north to south in the West Bank, where Israel is waging a full-fledged war of annexation, consisting of record land seizures, destruction of Palestinian homes, and a flood of funds for illegal colonies already springing up on Palestinian land.
R.’s extended family welcomes us among the olive trees in the small village of 5,600 inhabitants located between Tulkarem and Nablus in the northern West Bank. They serve us tea first, then coffee, in the tradition of deep welcome typical of Palestinians. There are six farmers gathered to meet us. “There it is, you see? That is the new Abu Jamrah outpost, which will enlarge the Einav colony. They stole 30 dunams of land from us to build it.” In front of us, on the hill opposite, caravans and prefabs, a communications antenna, cars and vehicles. “Since October 7, the Israeli Authority has started expanding its settlements in the Palestinian territories. This is just one example. In recent months here in Tulkarem province alone they have built 4 more outposts: Qaffin, Shweikeh, Avni Hevets (shouffeh) and Jbara. They are taking more and more land, in everyone’s silence,” says R. Hundreds of meters as the crow flies from the outpost, in the middle of the vegetation, a large Israeli flag flies. “They want to go all the way there. As always, they have no right to it. That land belonged to my grandfather’s family.” In the area around Tulkarem, the Israelis are not even issuing agreements to access even a few days’ worth of land: it is a collective punishment for the entire population of the village, considered the “cradle” of resistance, they say. “This year they prevented us from harvesting about 2,000 olive trees,” R. says again, on behalf of everyone. A big blow to the already difficult family economies during this time of war. “The settlers even tried to steal our donkeys, but they couldn’t do it.”
The story of R.’s family is the story of now more and more Palestinians, who since Oct. 7 are experiencing even more harassment, violence, and land theft than since the beginning of the 1967 occupation.
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israel has confiscated 52,000 dunams in one year (1 dunams=1000 square meters, 1/10th of a hectare). This is a huge number, compounded by the new annexations declared in recent weeks. In fact, in a single day, Finance Minister Bazalel Smotrich announced the confiscation of 24,000 dunams declaring them “state lands.” This is the largest confiscation ever, covering more than half of the hectares Israel has taken since the Oslo Accords in 1993. Added to it are the 25,000 dunams that were confiscated under the pretext of changing the boundaries of nature reserves, plus the 1,233 dunams confiscated for “military purposes.” Israel’s “practice” of self-declared “state” lands had been discontinued in 1992, until Netanyhahu’s first government resurrected it in 1998. Since then, until Oct. 7, 2023, confiscations had been periodic until reaching the figure of 40 thousand dunams.
Instead, over the past 14 months, it seems that the government has been racing in grabbing as much land as possible. The goal is clear, and the various ministers in Tel Aviv have openly stated it: to create corridors between settlements, build new ones, annex the West Bank and thus fight attempts to build a Palestinian state. A goal Israel has always had, but it is experiencing an unprecedented acceleration. “2025 will be the year of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich wrote on X, using the name Israel gives to this part of Palestine. Ministers in Tel Aviv want to take advantage of Trump’s presidency, and perhaps the now clear international inaction, to carry out one of their plans for the creation of Greater Israel: the disappearance of the West Bank as such. Starting with the already announced divestment of the Civil Administration in the West Bank and the transfer of its powers directly into the hands of Israeli ministries.
According to the Israeli organization PeaceNow there are at least 43 new outposts built since October 7 throughout the region, and 5 new colonies. 70 outposts – illegal under Israeli law itself – legalized, plus 3 others that have been designated “neighborhoods” of nearby colonies. New settlements also legalized inside the city of Hebron. Settlement of the territory is also taking place thanks to the dozens of kilometers of roads to connect the settlements that have been approved, with funding of more than 7 billion shekels. About 450 million furthermore the shekels promised for “projects” in the settlements and outposts to encourage the arrival of new settlers.
While Palestinians are effectively prevented from building new homes, thanks in part to the definition of many lands as “military zones” or “nature reserves,” the Tel Aviv government has authorized the construction of 8,861 new housing units in the colonies. Simultaneously through settler and military violence, there are at least 277 Palestinian families (about 1630 individuals) and between 19 and 28 entire Bedouin communities that have been forced off their land. Threats, fires, theft of livestock, sabotage to livelihoods and violence of various kinds have indeed escalated in many areas of the West Bank (while this was already the norm in many areas even before Oct 7). Especially since Israel has given the settlers a green light and given them thousands of weapons, effectively promising impunity for their actions. There have been 16,663 attacks on Palestinian land and property since Oct. 7.
At least 900 homes have been demolished, not counting the hundreds and hundreds of homes destroyed in military raids on camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas and Nablus. The West Bank is undergoing an unprecedented direct attack. On Dec. 15, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates also expressed deep concern over Israel’s recent escalation of unilateral and illegal actions in the occupied West Bank aimed at “intensifying and expanding ethnic cleansing and gradual annexation.” He called on the international community to implement its resolutions, particularly U.N. Security Council Resolution 2735 and the U.N. General Assembly decision adopting the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice. “Resolving the Palestinian issue and ending the occupation is the only way to achieve security, stability and prosperity for the region and the world,” he reiterated. In the hope that someone will act.
