Tag: west bank

Israel’s attacks on refugee camps in the West Bank

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.

A view over the Nur Shams camp. — A view over the Nur Shams refugee camp.

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.

Three young Palestinian children are sat amidst some trees in the sun. — Palestinian children anxiously await the demolition of their houses by the Israeli military.

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.

What Does Israel Want in The West Bank?

Northern West Bank By Diana Khwaelid

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Release of Prisoners and the Ceasefire in Gaza

By: Diana Khwaelid
21 January 2025

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.

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.

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.

West Bank: record amount of land stolen by Israel. More acres annexed since Oct. 7 than in 30 years

Beit Lid – North West Bank

“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.

Twelve martyrs in Jenin camp in less than 20 hours

Jenin — West Bank – By Diana Khwaelid

The Israeli occupation forces are seriously escalating in the West Bank, in particular in its Northern regions. In the Jenin camp, an Israeli aerial bombardment targeted six Palestinians including three brothers, and a child no older than 15.

On the evening of Tuesday, January 14th, an Israeli military aircraft carried out an aerial bombardment in the center of the Jenin camp in the northern West Bank, killing six Palestinians and wounding at least eight more with moderate injuries. At the time of the bombing, the residents of the camp described a state of horror and fear. One Palestinian eyewitness said: “We saw the bodies of Palestinians lying on the ground among the dead and wounded, with bare blood everywhere.”

A Palestinian woman is walking through a street, supported by a man and a woman holding her by the arms and a few other people around. Her hijab is stained with blood. — The mother of the three martyred brothers grieves her sons

In contradiction with their own communications, Israel is continuously targeting Palestinian civilians in the North of the West Bank — regardless of age, gender, background. The situation of escalating campaigns of military operations in the northern West Bank mirrors the war crimes we continue to witness in Gaza.

A Palestinian woman in the middle of a crowd is closing her eyes and holding her hand to her mouth in pain. — Farewell to the martyrs

The situation in the camp is unstable due to the recent Israeli military incursions, including the destruction and bulldozing of streets and infrastructure, the destruction of houses and shops, and the cutting of electricity and water lines. Dozens of Palestinian families have left the camp, especially those who have lost their homes. Many still remain, rejecting the idea of abandoning and living away from their place of origin.

In a street, two Palestinian men are standing looking at the ground, on which a red stain is visible amongst water sprayed to clean. — Two men contemplate the the site of the airstrike where martyrs were killed

According to residents, the bombing happened a few meters away from the house of the three brothers who were killed, who are from the Abu Al-Hijaa family, one of the most well-known and largest families in the camp. They were sitting near their house alongside friends and neighbours.

The martyrs’ names are 15-year-old Mahmoud Gharbiya, 28-year-old Mo’min Abu al-Hijaa, 27-year-old Amir Abu al-Hijaa, 34-year-old Hossam Qanouh, 23-year-old Ibrahim Qaneri, and 33-year-old Baha Abu al-Hijaa.

A crowd of Palestinian men around six bodies wrapped in Palestinian flags carried high on stretchers at the centre of the crowd. Some men are filming on their phones, many others raise their hand with a peace sign. — A crowd assembles at the funeral of the six Tuesday martyrs.

Before their blood could dry in the streets of Jenin, on Wednesday evening, January 15th, the Israeli military committed another crime in the Al- Dumaj Neighborhood of the camp, in which six more Palestinians were killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

A man, a woman and a boy are standing by a wall, looking defeated. The woman is leaning on the wall, the man is holding his head in his hands. — A Palestinian family in pain residing in the Jenin camp

The number of martyrs in the West Bank since October 7 has reached 858, including 237 in Jenin. The city of Jenin has the highest number of martyrs in the West Bank.